Losing at Chess
by GerdavR
Summary: Tony acts strange and Reed has a unsettling suspicion... (Comicswhyowhy and I wrote this fic together, without planning the plot ahead, always exchanging the tablet we worked on after a few paragraphs. It certainly kept us well entertained to see the direction this was going in, with two authors and no planning. You can have a guess as to who is whose favourite character!)
1. The Incident

Carol Danvers pensively looked out of the window and wondered why Reed Richards had called her to his office in the Baxter Building. She thought fleetingly about the incident that had apparently happened last week, while Tony and Reed were on a mission. She hadn't really gotten any details out of Tony, but apparently something had gone amiss. Carol sighed, opened the window and flew off, a worried crease between her eyebrows.

Within mere minutes she landed on the roof of the FF's headquarters. Captain Marvel registered with surprise that Reed already awaited her, his arms slightly stretched as he beckoned her over in his usual awkward fashion.

„Captain Marvel, thank you for coming."

„No Problem, Reed, and call me Carol, for God's sake."

She smiled at the confusion appearing on Reed's Face.

„Alright, Carol. I called you here because I need your expertise."

„The all-knowing Mr. Fantastic needs my expertise? Next thing is probably Vic von Doom admitting a mistake!"

Reed had a thoughtful expression on his face. „Actually, Victor did that once... But that is not important right now. It's about Tony – I think he drinks again."

„W-what?", Carol stuttered. She did not know what to think. Was Reed really serious about that, and what on Earth had made him think so? If there was something to that suspicion, it would be really bad. Tony was one of the main people who had helped her overcome her own addiction, she really didn't want to see him go down that route again.

Reed looked at her nervously.

„Look, Carol, I know you have a history yourself, I thought you'd be the right person to judge the situation."

„Are you certain? " she asked, not willing to discuss her personal issues with someone alluding to them so insensitively. Actually, it was strange that a man so aloof of everything ordinary would even register that Tony had problems. Carol had never understood why a compassionate and warm man like Tony would bother to befriend Richards. He had struck her as a cold and distant man who felt himself too important to burden himself with the problems everybody else had to face.

„Well, no", Reed admitted, looking contrite. He fell silent, obviously not knowing how to breach the subject.

„Let's go inside and then you tell me everything", Carol said, her pragmatic nature taking over. Reed nodded and led the way inside. She had expected him to lead her into the living room, but instead he showed Carol to his lab. Reed gestured towards a chair and started to walk back and forth. Carol didn't sit down, she crossed her arms and looked at him.

„Well?"

„I'm not good at this, Sue always says that..." He absentmindedly rearranged a few pens on his desk until they were absolutely symmetrical. „We were in space last week and Tony was unusually distracted. He lost on all five boards, he never loses on all of them."

„Seriously? Tony loses some board game and you think that means he is drinking again?"

„I'm not good at this, but I'm telling you, he has lost his focus."

Carol shook her head disbelievingly. „Come on, there must be something more to it than that!"

If anything, Reed seemed to become even more fidgety. Something was definitely wrong.

„I... Carol, we lost Peter out there, and with his history, I think Tony might be blaming himself."

„You lost... Peter? But I saw him just the other day!"

„We saved him, retrieved him only a short time after our encounter with Annihilus and the trouble with the portals, but it was a close call. Peter Quill and his guardians showed up in the nick of the time."

„So? In our business that's hardly a rare occurrence. Tony certainly wouldn't be driven back to the bottle because of something like that, he can handle close calls. He's a tough guy, Reed, you know that." Carol became impatient.

Reed seemed out of his depth. "But I thought… Maybe it being Peter, who looks up to him as some sort of mentor…"

Carol interrupted. "Look, I can tell you care, and it's a fine sentiment. But I really don't think we have anything to worry about if that's all we have to go on."

Reed frowned and shook his head slightly, clearly disagreeing with that statement; it would almost have been funny had he not looked so troubled. "But almost from the moment when Tony left the ship to get Peter back and entered the wormhole Annihilus had opened into another dimension, he seemed… changed. Maybe he has been exposed to something out there?"

Carol frowned. Stranger things had happened, she had to admit that. "Have you asked him about it?"

Reed grimaced. "I tried. But he just laughed and said something like: 'Reed, I'm okay, it's mood swings, not everyone can have your sunny disposition at all times.'"

Carol smiled. „Well, that does sound like Tony."

Reed opened his mouth and looked as if he were about to comment on Carol's remark. Carol hurriedly continued. „I'm really not sure whether you aren't overreacting, Doctor."

Reed looked shifty and Carol wondered briefly if she still hadn't heard the whole truth about that story. „Just, Carol, can you promise me you'll look into it? Please."

Carol sighed. „I don't really see why you can't do it yourself, you do call Tony a friend, after all" – another shifty look – „but I'll see what I can do for you."

When Carol arrived back at the Tower, Tony was locked into his lab, as usual. She knew of course the access codes and entered them into the computer. Once she was in the lab, Carol strode towards Tony's workplace, only to stop dead in her tracks at the sight of her friend hunched over his desk. An all too familiar stench surrounded Tony: Whiskey and vomit.

„No, no, no – that can't be happening! Tony!" She rushed to him and shook him. _Damn it! I won't let him go down!_

The man only groaned and said: „Jarvis, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that she..."

What the Devil was he talking about? Carol Lifted the semi-conscious man and carried him to the stretcher Tony usually used when he made a self-diagnosis. Carol had some experience with Tony's tech, an she was puzzled by the readings as she induced a scan. Everything was slightly off, a few numbers didn't make sense at all. Should she alert the other avengers? No, much as she loved him, Steve at times had little understanding for that kind of weakness − to him, everything was a question of will. But Steve didn't know how alluring the alcohol induced oblivion was. Carol took out her communicator and called Reed.

Even though he sounded more than reluctant on the phone – another man not good at dealing with weakness, evidently – Reed arrived only a couple of minutes later, leaving the Fantasticar on the roof. All the while, Tony had been lying on the stretcher semi-conscious. Seeing his friend almost passed out, Reed paused in the doorway. However, he got himself together quickly and strode towards the stretcher, all the while talking to Carol. „So you have taken his vitals? Have you taken into account the leftovers from the extremis-enhancements? Tony's biology works on overdrive, he is now less stress-resistant than the average human..."

„Of course, because in this room, I am the one with the doctorate in biology", Carol said sarcastically.

Reed looked slightly offended. „Actually, I have a honoris causa doctorate in biology because of my research in the field of..."

Carol sighed. „NO, Reed, I don't know enough about his biology to take such things into account. Hence I called you to help."

Suddenly, they heard a groan from the stretcher. Tony stirred. „No help needed", he pressed out.

Carol and Reed just stared at him for a moment. He sat up, quickly typed something into the console Carol had been working on, and got ready to get up.

„Now, WAIT a moment", Carol said. Tony was swaying a little on his feet, but looking at them with alert eyes. „What the HELL is going on?"

„Carol, darling, everything is just fine!", Tony said, putting on what he obviously thought of as his most charming smile, but looking rather pained.

„FINE? You call drinking yourself into oblivion FINE?!"

„Ahhhh, that, why didn't you just say so! I was just running some tests, stress, endurance and the like, you know my biology has undergone some rather radical changes of late."

Carol gritted her teeth. „Tests like the ones whose results you just deleted?"

„Well, yes, dear, just more professional."

Carol opened her mouth to protest, but Reed interjected, a pleading look on his face.

„Tony, are you alright?"

Tony turned his eyes on him, and they were surprisingly cold.

„Well, yes, Reed, I am just peachy. Now I would appreciate it if you could leave."

„I'm worried about you, Tony, let me just have a quick look at These readings." With these words Reed stretched his arm with the clear intention to place his hand on Tony's shoulder. Carol noted that Tony froze at the gesture.

„Don't touch me!" Tony slapped Reed's hand away, but this rather abrupt movement made him lose his equilibrium and he fell onto the floor. His armour made a dull sound when it collided with the ground. Carol grabbed Tony and put him back on his feet.

„Stop it, Tony! You're clearly not peachy!"

He turned to face her and said quietly: „That's none of your business, sugar."

Carol simply slapped him, surprising herself at the harsh gesture, but this whole situation was setting her on edge. „I've had enough of your derogative nicknames!"

Tony didn't answers, he just put his helmet back on and walked towards the exit.

Carol immediately felt bad; she knew she shouldn't have slapped Tony, and the silent rejection he showed her by not reacting hurt.

„Tony, I am sorry, I..."

But he didn't even seem to listen as he entered the airlock. Carol considered stopping him by force, something she should be well capable of with him in the state he was in, even in the suit, but she hesitated a moment too long, fearing the damage she might do to the tower, not to speak of their friendship. And already Tony had taken off, disappearing into the grey afternoon skies, a lightning bolt quickly getting out of sight.

Carol gave an exasperated sigh, deciding to go with anger instead of the more complicated and hurtful emotions she felt boiling inside. She turned to Reed, who seemed dumb-struck.

„He – he slapped my hand away. Why would he do that? He's always the one initiating physical contact and telling me I'm a stiff when I don't reciprocate..."

„Really, Reed? That is your biggest worry here?"

„I mean, there's also the drinking, but why would..."

Suddenly, the Avengers priority alert went off, and the face of Captain America appeared on a screen off to the side, looking supremely pissed off.

„Tony, I've had enough. Natasha got hurt in battle today because you apparently couldn't be bothered to fulfil your duty as one of our heavy strikers and turn up when you're needed. I've asked before, when I was in a more benign mood, but what the hell is wrong with you?! You've been acting off..."

Carol, who had been taken by surprise by the tirade, interjected. „Steve, he's not here."

Steve faltered.

„Carol?"

„Yes, Steve, I am in Tony's lab, with Reed Richards. Listen, something is up..."

And Carol filled him in while Reed started fiddling with Tony's equipment, quietly muttering to himself. Carol didn't even want to know what he was going on about now.

When she had finished, Steve looked appalled.

„He's DRINKING again?! My God, I never would have thought... Carol, we have to find him!"

Reed looked up from the console he was working on.

„I think I might be able to help with that, Captain..."

Carol turned towards Reed. Cap also directed his gaze as well as his bad mood against Reed.

„I appreciate your help, Dr. Richards, but this is strictly Avengers-Business. Tony is our responsibility, I assure you that we will handle the situation."

Carol was baffled that Cap would turn down Reed's help – did he still hold a grudge against him because of his participation in Prison 42? Strange, after all he had forgiven Tony (or so she thought, one could never be sure with those two), why shouldn't he do the same with Richards?

„Steve, Reed could actually expedite things with his knowledge about Tony's tech."

Cap hesitated and finally said: „All right, I suggest that we keep this between the three of us, I want to hear Tony's side before informing the other Avengers."

„I've triangulated his signal, Captain, but Tony scrambled his readings before I could pinpoint his exact position."

„Well?" asked Cap impatiently.

„I'm transmitting the coordinates now."

Carol looked at the search grid Reed had laid out on the monitor. „Damn, that is a lot of ground to cover – he could be anywhere in Manhattan. We should split up and search for him – a duperhero in gold and red armour can't disappear like that."

They assigned respective areas and Carol was ready to fly off, but she was called back by Reed. „Carol, what should I do if I find him? I'm not really good at talking to people and he seemed quite agitated."

Carol snorted. Quite agitated, indeed. So that's what „completely out of his mind with drink" sounded like, coming out of Reed's mouth. But even though she couldn't help but feel bewildered at Reed's lack of social sensitivity, she appreciated the fact that he was seriously trying to help and felt a little sorry for him, seeing how out of his depth he was.

„Reed, don't worry. If you find him, just call us in, you don't even necessarily have to approach him. We'll get there as fast as we can."

Reed nodded, his jawline tight. Carol turned, deciding that the issues of one super-genius were decidedly enough to deal with, for a lifetime, entered the airlock and took off.

She had roamed the city for more than half an hour when the communicator in her ear rang. Steve was on the other end.

„Carol, I found him."

His voice sounded strained. Carol frowned.

„And?"

„You'd better come and see for yourself."

Carol checked the coordinates and took off to the position that Steve had indicated as fast as she could.

Steve waited for her in a deserted back alley, arms crossed, posture tense. When she landed, he simply nodded towards a dingy little bar almost hidden behind a construction wall. Carol carefully approached one of the dirty windows.

Inside, she made out some customers standing in a group, laughing. At the bar, however, there was a lone figure bent low over a drink. She recognised Tony's thick mop of black hair.

Carol turned to Cap.

„You haven't talked to him yet?"

Steve shook his head wordlessly.

„Have you informed Reed?"

Steve winced.

„Carol, I'm not sure he's the right person to be dealing with this..."

Carol laughed bitterly. „As opposed to us, who have made such splendid experiences with drunks, especially with ones called Tony Stark? Come on, Steve, he might be an insensitive egghead, but he really seems to care. What is your problem with him?"

Steve sighed and looked momentarily lost in thought. „Well, alright, let's call him. It's just that I don't much like his arrogant demeanour, and him and Tony are just..." He shook his head, but there was a slight smile on his face. „Let's just say I am sure those two are gonna blow up the world and everything we hold dear when no one's watching."

Carol smiled back, relieved at Cap being okay with informing Reed; also, she couldn't help but kind of agree with Steve's statement, those two together were a catastrophe.

„Let's just hope they never plot to take over the world..."

She activated her communicator and called Reed.


	2. Rock bottom

After a few more minutes Richards arrived with the Fantasticar. Carol had somehow expected to see a sign of disgust on his face, they were, after all standing in an alley reeking of urine and stale water. She and Steve were soldiers and weren't queasy about the seedy underbelly of a city like New York, but Richards probably had never set foot into the dirty part of human society. But much to her surprise Reed didn't even flinch as he had to step over a rather large heap of garbage.

„We have to get Tony out of that bar," began Cap, „we should try and contain this situation for his sake."

Carol looked through the window again and at this very moment saw how one of the customers filmed an interaction between Tony and the Barkeeper with his smartphone. „It's already too late for that. Pictures of Iron Man hitting rock bottom are going to be on YouTube in a few seconds!" Behind her Reed pulled out a small device and pushed a few buttons.

„No, they won't. I've induced a dead spot, it will last about 20 minutes."

„Not good enough! Erase the footage!" commanded Cap.

Carol registered for the first time that Reed had an annoyed look on his face – who would've guessed that the cool-headed scientist could lose his even temper?

„Captain, do you think that is wise? I understand your need to protect Tony, but there might be ramifications if I violate someone's private sphere by hacking their phone. Don't you think it would be wiser if we tried talking to the people present here directly?"

Steve looked annoyed yet again, Carol noticed with a certain amount of apprehension.

„Richards, you don't understand. This isn't just about Tony. If pictures of the benefactor and one of the powerhouses as well as the political and PR liaison of the Avengers spinning out of control get out to the public, the Avengers have a disaster on their hands. Especially as everyone knows Tony's history of alcohol abuse and what it last led to. We cannot, I repeat, we cannot risk that. Talking won't get us the security we need."

Reed clenched his lips, looking rather angry, Carol thought. He probably wasn't used to receiving orders.

„All due respect, Steve, but I want to talk to the people first."

Steve snorted. „And with your famed social skills and powers of persuasion, you'll get them to give you their phones so we can make sure nothing's on there anymore?"

Reed crossed his arms. They rather looked like two angry cockerels facing off, Carol thought.

„Is this supposed to be ironic?"

Cap snorted again. „Whatever made you think that, Reed?"

„Well, Sue says that..."

„Guys", Carol interrupted. She had approached the window again.

„... don't have great social..."

„GUYS! Come here, right now!"

The two men stopped and headed over to Carol who was standing in front of the window. Inside the bar things had taken a turn for the worse. Tony had gotten up from his stool and said something unintelligibly to the other customers, from the look on their faces they didn't seem to like it.

„We have to act now, before everything gets out of hand!" bellowed Cap. „Tony is still wearing his armour, he could do something stupid and hurt someone!" But before Steve could spring into action, the door to the bar opened and a rather roughed up Tony was thrown into the gutter. „Iron Man my ass!" yelled a rather obese man wearing a Yankee T-Shirt.

The two Avengers as well as Reed were too surprised to act at first. Carol finally knelt down besides Tony, who was lying face down on the concrete. Carefully she turned him around and cursed under her breath was she saw that Tony had a rather deep cut on his forehead.

„Tony, what happened?"

Tony looked at her without comprehension at first, eyes dazed, a little blood trickling down into his eyes. Then he seemed to recognise her and cursed quietly under his breath.

„Tony?", she repeated, raising her hand to swipe the blood off his forehead. He flinched and tried to turn his head away. Carol frowned; Tony wasn't usually that edgy around her. Then again, he also usually wasn't drunk out of his mind, so there was that.

„Let's face it, Honey, this isn't the worst state you've seen me in. And much as I like being caressed by your tender hands –„

He suddenly braced one hand on the floor, half-turned and dry heaved. Carol turned to Steve and Reed, who both looked on helplessly. When he had gotten himself together again, Tony slowly turned back to the three of them. Recognising Cap, he seemed to flinch once more, then made a visible effort to get himself under control.

„Cap, old boy, to what do I owe the honour of your presence? Felt like giving someone the disapproving Captain-America-is-disappointed-in-you stink eye again? Always a delight to see it."

He really was surprisingly eloquent for his state, Carol thought. She turned to Cap to see his reaction. To her amazement he was looking rather calm.

„Tony, you need help."

Tony clenched his lips and averted his eyes.

„No, Cap, what I need is for you to leave me alone."

„How dare you?" Cap almost whispered before starting to yell. „How dare you to throw everything away? You have everything and you just throw it away! YOU THROW IT AWAY AGAIN! Have you forgotten what happened to you last time?!"

Before Cap could continue his rant Tony vomited. Steve took a step back and looked at his friend with pity. Carol wanted to give him his chance to react before she stepped in; she directed her gaze towards Tony – only to discover that Reed had her beat to it. Right then it dawned on her that she had underestimated Reed's resilience and affection for Tony. He knelt beside his friend and cleaned his face with a handkerchief. Reed didn't even flinch when Tony started to cry, he just pulled out another handkerchief from his utility belt and tenderly wiped his tears away. He obviously didn't mind the rather awkward situation and even put his arm around Tony's shoulders to hold him.

So that was why Tony actually considered Richards a friend − he was certainly a cold-hearted know-it-all, but in this instance Reed showed that he was indeed capable of giving support when it was really needed. Carol thought back to the times of the Civil War – times she would rather forget – and thought about how Reed had been one of the very few to actually loyally stand beside Tony then.

She crouched down beside Reed and Tony. Tony still seemed rather lost in a state of abject, drunken misery, face screwed up with tears, while Reed had started murmuring „there, there" under his breath. Carol was suddenly forcibly reminded of the fact that Reed was a father and had probably done his fair share of comforting and wiping vomit away (before, she would always have assumed that only Sue took care of such problems). Steve still stood a little away, evidently unsure of what to do, which was somehow understandable considering the fact that it was him who had sent Tony into his state of misery. Carol couldn't help but bristle a bit at Steve's helplessness, though.

Gradually, Tony seemed to calm down a little. And all of a sudden, he started struggling against Reed's arms around his shoulder. Reed looked confused, and Tony pulled himself free with more focused force than she would have credited him with right now. Reed stared.

Tony made a visible effort to get himself together. „Listen, this isn't about you, but I can't do this." There was a haunted look in his eyes.

„Can't do what, Tony?", Reed asked, voice gentle.

„This." Tony gesticulated at them. „I have to go."

Cap took a step closer again and sighed. „Tony, I am sorry. I shouldn't... have yelled at you. But you have to come with us. We can help you."

Tony laughed bitterly. „Help me? I am afraid you are out of your depth here, Cap."

He made to get up, hands braced on the dirty wall behind him. Carol hastened to his side, stabilising him. „Tony, please be reasonable. You're in no state to go anywhere, let alone pilot the suit."

Reed piped in. „And remember the interdimensional transistor project we're working on in my lab? I need your help on that, I have some new specs I'd like to show you."

Tony looked at him incredulously. „Reed, I really don't care."

Reed looked a mixture between confused and disappointed that would have been funny any other day. „But..."

„No but, Reed. I am leaving."

„Tony, I can't let you fly off in your state."

Tony looked at Cap stubbornly.

„Try to stop me, then."

He looked down to locate his helmet. At that precise moment, Cap's shield hit his head and he went down like a stone. Carol and Reed stared. „What the hell..." began Carol, but Steve interrupted her.

„We can't let him go away, my apartment is nearby. We'll take him there..."

„With all due respect, Captain, you may have induced a concussion..."

„With all due respect, _Doctor_ , I'm doing this since 1941..."

„You're doing what since then? Knocking out your allies?" Reed coldly asked.

Carol had had enough; she shook her head, then just grabbed Tony and took off.

Captain Marvel landed mere seconds later on Steve's balcony. She entered the code to unlock the door and gently put Tony on Steve's bed.

Carol looked around in the flat and was mildly surprised to see that the usually neat apartment was a little messy. Perhaps Steve had left in a hurry? Then her sight fell on a book lying on the bedside table. Carol looked around, there was still no sign of Steve and Reed, she took the book in hand and discovered that it was a book about quantum physics for beginners. Why on earth would Steve read something like that? She put it back and tried to get the armour off Tony's body, but she quickly realised that there was a lockdown in place that made it impossible to remove the suit without resorting to brutal force. Carol sighted and decided that she needed a cup of coffee, and went to the kitchen.

While the coffee machine was pouring out coffee Steve and Reed arrived, both of them looked a little bit embarrassed. Steve looked down and started, „Carol, I'm sorry..."

„Not relevant right now, Steve. I put Tony on your bed, but I couldn't get the armour off him, there's a lockdown in place. Anything you two can do about that?"

„Yes...", Cap started, while Reed said „I have the release codes." They stared at one another.

„You have the release codes? ", Steve said incredulously.

„Yes, Tony gave them to me", Reed said, a little awkwardly, apparently not knowing what the problem was.

Steve hesitated, but then said, „Ok, I have them too, let's get him out of his armour."

The three of them went to the bedroom. Tony was still unconscious, looking very pale. Reed started to bend over him, but stopped when he saw Steve taking Tony's hand. For a moment, he just stood like that, then he quietly uttered:

„Armour override code Steve Rogers, 334-8263-87469-521."

The hatches on the side of the armour released and a black-and-blue-undersuit was revealed that Carol didn't recall having seen before. She started taking the armour parts and carefully placing them on a chair by the bed, and a moment later, Reed and Steve were by her side helping her.

When they were done, they stood there looking down at Tony's still figure. After a moment of silence, Carol sighed, went into the bathroom and got the first-aid kit.

When she got back, Reed had the helmet in his hands, fiddling with it, apparently reviewing some footage, while Cap still stood by the bed and stared down at Tony. He still cradled Tony's hand. Carol sat down on the other side of the bed and started carefully wiping Tony's forehead with a warm, wet towel. Right over the crust of blood from the cut, a rather impressive bruise was starting to form. The more blood she cleaned away, the bigger it looked. Cap grimaced. Carol looked up, right into his eyes.

„Carol, I had to do it."

„You didn't have to do it that way."

„What other way was there?"

„We could have found one, Steve. It isn't your position to be the leader that decides for all of us without asking us first!" Carol could feel herself getting mad and tried to keep it under control, a tantrum wouldn't help anyone.

Steve seemed a bit shaken. „But Carol, how could -"

„Ahhhh!", came from the other side of the room. Carol and Steve both turned. Reed looked up, eyes shining. „What an _elegant_ solution!"

Steve and Carol stared. Reed looked a little awkward but went on explaining enthusiastically, „Tony has erased the footage on the phones of the customers in the bar using a randomised algorithm!"

„Which means? ", Cap asked, yet again looking a little pissed.

Reed looked confused. „Well, it's just a rather beautiful mathematical solution to the data-problem we've been grappling with."

Carol turned back to Tony, while Reed and Steve still looked at one another. She started disinfecting the cut. Tony stirred a little, but still didn't come around.

„Well, Steve", Reed said after a very tense pause, „I see you're trying to get into quantum physics?"

When Steve didn't answer, he continued: „I just gave Franklin the introduction you're using, Valeria is of course way more advanced, but don't give up if things seem hard to understand at first, I am sure I could get Valeria to give you a lesson, if you like."

Even more testy silence. Suddenly, Tony groaned. They all turned their attention towards the man lying on the bed.

Tony slowly opened his eyes and murmured: „What happened?" Carol looked at Steve, who shifted from one foot to another, visibly uncomfortable.

„I'm sorry, Tony, I just wanted to make sure that you wouldn't do anything ill-considered," said Cap. Tony stared at Steve, visibly agitated.

„So you incapacitated me? HOW DARE YOU?" He yelled. Steve clenched his jaw but didn't answer. Reed stepped in.

„Tony, calm down..." But as soon as he realised who was talking to him, Tony got quiet. Carol registered that he raised his right hand slightly, as if he wanted to ward off Richards. She knew Tony well enough to recognize that he was scared. Immediately she stepped between Reed and Tony.

„Give him some space!"

„But..." started Reed, clearly confused... and hurt? By Superman's shorts – did she actually manage to hurt the inhuman Reed Richards?

„You heard her, Richards, move it – you've done enough!" hissed Tony.

„What's wrong, Tony? You've never called me..." Strangely enough Carol felt sorry for Reed, he looked utterly lost.

Tony didn't react, instead he looked at Carol pleadingly. „Please, Carol, can you..."

Carol swallowed. She didn't know what was going on, but it was obvious that Tony was in serious distress. She turned to Reed once more.

„Reed, I have to ask you to leave the room for a moment. You too, Steve. I need a word with Tony in private."

Reed looked miserable, but nodded, while Cap looked downright mutinous. „Steve, this is not negotiable." With a last look over his shoulder, Cap left and closed the door behind him. Carol looked down at Tony, who had started chewing on his lower lip and seemed to be thinking.

„Ok, Tony, now, would you please tell me what is going on?"

He looked up, a strange expression of longing on his face. „Carol, I'm not..." He shook his head slightly and paused. „... well", he resumed after a moment.

Carol gave him a faint smile. „That I noticed, right around the time you vomited in that alley."

Tony smiled sadly. „I'm a mess, aren't I."

Carol sat down on the bed beside him and put her arm around him. „A little."

Tony's eyes looked suspiciously wet, then he sighed. „Sweetheart, could we continue this discussion of my multiple failings as a human being later? I'm afraid it's going to be rather long, with my impressive list of defects, and I don't feel too marvellous."

Now it was Carol's turn to smile sadly. „Of course, Tony. But will you promise me you'll stay here, with us, and let us help you?"

Tony tensed under her arm. „Us meaning you, Steve and Richards?"

Carol looked directly into his eyes. „Why do you keep on calling him Richards?"

Tony averted his gaze. „Why did you let Steve knock me out?"

„Don't change the topic, Tony. And you know Steve, sometimes there's no ‚letting' him do anything, because he simply doesn't give you the time to react."

Tony still didn't look up, but fiddled with the duvet.

„It's... nothing. He's just a stretchy motherfucker and at times he freaks me out."

Now he looked at her, batting his lashes and giving her a lopsided grin. Carol didn't believe a word he said. But she saw how wet Tony's eyes still were, how tired he looked, how fragile his smile was, and decided to let it go. For the moment at least. She sighed yet again.

„Ok. Now sleep, ok, and we'll discuss everything when you wake up."

She loosened her arm, and Tony seemed to resist for a moment, wanting to hold onto her. But then he relaxed and let himself sink back down into the bed. But when she turned to leave, he made a little sound at the back of his throat. She looked at him. There seemed to be an internal struggle, then he said: „Please... stay?"

Something twisted inside of her. What the hell had happened to Tony for him to be so afraid? She gave him another rather pained smile and sat down beside the bed.

„Of course, Tony."

After what felt like way too long, Tony finally relaxed, his breathing evening out. Very quietly, Carol left the room, closing the door soundlessly.

Steve was nervously pacing up and down in the kitchen. „And?", he asked immediately upon her entry.

„He's asleep now. Where's Reed?"

Steve clenched his jaw. „He murmured something about having just the right inoculation at the Baxter building and left. He should be back shortly."

Carol sat down at the table, feeling emotionally drained. „Ok. Steve, you are out of control."

He stared. „What?"

Carol looked at him sharply. „You really have no idea as to how to deal with an alcoholic, do you?"

Steve fidgeted under her gaze. Then he seemed to make a decision, took the chair opposite her and ran his hands through his hair.

„Truth is, I have too much of an idea, and nothing helped."

„What?", Carol asked blankly.

Steve grimaced. „Carol, my... my Dad was an alcoholic. I saw his slow decline... helpless... in the end beating up my mum..."

He heaved. The confession had obviously cost him a lot of strength. Carol was shocked.

„Steve, I had no idea..."

He smiled sadly. They both sat in silence for a while. Only after a few minutes did she dare break it.

„But Steve, Tony isn't your Dad. He would never..."

Steve sighed once more. „I know, Carol, it's just that..."

Suddenly they heard a muffled sound coming from Tony's room. They looked at one another, then both got up in one swift movement, practically flying to the door.

The sight that presented itself was more than confusing. Tony sat in the farthest corner of the bed, clutching his arm and looking utterly horrified. Bent over him was Reed, who had obviously entered the apartment during their discussion, going directly to the bedroom. He held an empty syringe in one hand, and gesticulated wildly with both arms, apparently in a misguided attempt at calming Tony down. Tony for his part was breathing raggedly − it almost sounded like sobbing.

„Reed, WHAT THE HELL?!"

He turned towards them, eyes wild. „I... I just... Tony was so out of it... This should sober him up within a few minutes..."

„ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?" shouted Carol and within a fraction of a second she had him pinned against the wall. „Tony was and is clearly terrified of you, Reed! And you think it's a good idea to inoculate him while he is sleeping?!"

„I... but he seemed so confused and kept calling me Richards... I had to purge the alcohol..."

Carol let go of him and turned towards Tony. Steve sat beside him and patted his shoulder. He seemed distressed. „It's alright, Tony."

Carol directed her attention once again towards Reed. „You're supposed to be smart, Reed, why on earth did you do that? You're not even a medical doctor – and don't you dare mention your HC in biology!"

Richards averted his gaze and said softly: „Tony is my friend, He is the only one apart from my family who actually talks to me, I just..." He didn't finish the sentence.

Carol suddenly realised that the man in front of her was scared. At the beginning she had suspected that something else had gone wrong on the space mission, and that that was the reason why Tony Stark, who was a billionaire, playboy, genius and friggin' Iron Man was scared of Reed Richards, a nerdy, awkward bookworm who had even had mercy on _Galactus_. But Reed wasn't scared that some kind of secret was about to be unveiled, no, he was afraid to lose his only real friend – and then something broke inside him and he ran off and cooked up some drug to get the Tony he knew back.

„I understand, but this is not about you. It's about Tony. We have to support him in any way possible, even if that means that you've got to leave him alone, Reed."

The scientist nodded and withdrew into the farthest corner of the bedroom. Carol went to Tony, who was covered in sweat. She gently stroked his cheek. „Hey," she said quietly. Tony just stared at Cap, who now stood next to the bed.

„Steve, please don't leave me, I'm lost without you."

„I won't, don't worry." Steve seemed rather shaken by Tony's seemingly incoherent plea. But Tony just kept on staring at him as if he were a ghost. Then, a pained whimper escaped his lips and he started shaking violently.

„Oh God." Carol gripped him by the shoulders and tried looking into his eyes, but they had rolled up into his head. He was covered in cold sweat all over and non-responsive. Carol felt his pulse. It was racing.

„Steve, he is going into a catatonic state! Get the med kit!"

Almost before she had finished her sentence, Steve was back at the bedside with the kit, having obviously thought of the same thing before she had to utter her command. He was searching through the kit wildly, looking for something, scattering bottles around them. When he had found what he was looking for, he prepared a syringe with trembling hands.

Carol was trying to hold Tony still to keep him from hurting himself.

„Hold him, I need access to his neck", Steve pressed out between clenched lips.

Carol tried to, but Tony was thrashing wildly and she was afraid of hurting him with her superhuman strength.

„Reed, help me!", she grid out. When she turned, she saw Reed by the bed, hands clasped over his mouth, eyes wider than she had ever seen. „NOW, genius!"

Reed extended his arms – stretchy motherfucker indeed – and wrapped one unnaturally long arm around Tony's upper body, constraining his shoulders, while placing one enlarged hand on his forehead, bending his head back and bracing his neck to Cap. Cap took this window of opportunity and rammed the syringe into Tony's neck, emptying it.

For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen. But then, Tony's struggling suddenly lessened; his violent shaking subsided, his pulse slowed, and Reed carefully lowered him back down to the bed. There was a collective sigh of relief as the three of them looked at one another.

But Reed's look quickly changed to one of puzzlement. „But I took into account the after-effects of Extremis and everything, why didn't it..."

„Because you miscalculated?" Asked Steve aggressively, but Reed didn't even bother to answer, instead he started to revise the formula on a portable holoprojector, shifting chemical compositions around.

„Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Cap grabbed Reed's collar, his face only centimetres away from Richards'. Carol sighed, damn these over-inflated male egos! She wanted to separate the two men, perhaps _they_ needed to be knocked out too, but before she could intervene Reed had already wrapped himself around Steve. It was so skilfully done that Cap couldn't move anymore − Carol was surprised at Reed's prowess, and apparently so was Steve. His face distorted in anger and he visibly struggled to free himself.

„That's enough from you, Captain! I've tolerated your aggressive behaviour, but I won't let you manhandle me like a third-class villain. You may not like me, but you will treat me with respect. And you will treat Tony with respect! And for your information: I didn't miscalculate. There is something going on with Tony, and we _are going to uncover it_. Stand down for Tony's sake and let me do my work." With these words he released Steve.

„He is actually right," said Carol, „and you know it – Reed may be as sensitive as the Hulk, but he does not make this kind of mistakes! And one other thing, who's to say that it wasn't your knock-out which caused Tony's episode?"

Cap frowned and gritted his teeth. But then he seemed to deflate all of a sudden; something sad and insecure crept into his eyes. Quietly, he conceded.

„Okay."


	3. Iron Masks

Tony opened his eyes, only to see the grim visage of Victor von Doom hovering over him. A terrible headache caused him to close his eyes again right away. Also, the fact that DOOM was apparently standing over him didn't help, that really wasn't a nice sight to behold. He kind of hoped that all of this was a bad dream, but the all too familiar voice brought him back into reality.

„So we meet again, Iron Man. I've to admit that I'm amazed at your audacity, but pray tell me – why do you honour me with your presence?" Doom's voce oozed with sarcasm.

Tony groaned. A sarcastic Victor von Doom, well, that was just wonderful. This day kept on getting better.

„Well, it's father's day, Vicky, and I thought there's something I should tell you! I also brought chocolates."

Doom raised his hand and did something that Tony couldn't quite make out. A searing pain went through his right arm. _Ow, ok, sarcasm and Doom, baaaaad idea_ , Tony thought fleetingly, before he sank down into a world of darkness.

When he woke again, the headache was even worse. And that's what you stop drinking for, he sighed internally, only to have interdimensional-jump-and-Doom-torture-hangovers. Speaking of which, it was probably time to figure out what dimension he was in now. From a mission with Reed – not genocidal manic Reed, thankfully – he remembered the one where Doom ruled the world, enslaved everyone (he would of course call it freeing them to their natural state of being) and constantly made them sing his praises. He just kind of hoped it wasn't that one, he wasn't too hot on the singing.

He very carefully turned his head (ouch) and noticed for the first time that he was apparently chained to some sort of examination table ( _chains. Great._ ) and couldn't move one bit. He was still in the armour, though, so he had that going for him, even though he was sure that Doom was holding him in an EMP-field to incapacitate him. Doom himself was standing in a corner, fiddling with some device.

„Hey!", he called. Doom turned around. He had removed the lower part of his mask, apparently to take occasional sips of wine from the glass he was holding in his hand, which gave Tony a perfect view of the sardonic smile on his face.

„Stark. Welcome back."

„How do you know I am Stark? Maye this is all just some elaborate ruse and in fact this is Reed Richards wearing the armour."

Doom positively snorted. „Of course, a brilliant ruse. How is it working out for you?" He pushed a lever on his console and it _hurt_. Tony gritted his teeth, but thankfully, it wasn't as bad as last time and over quite quickly.

„Stark, you gave yourself away the moment you made your pathetic" – Doom sneered – „quip."

„Unfair. I thought I was pretty funny, all things considered, chains and all."

„You know, Stark, I have always had a certain – fondness for you, as far as mortal enemies go. You display so much childish arrogance it even impresses Doom. And you will be useful; on top of possessing your technology, you will either be a willing collaborator or a rather precious hostage. I know Richards has taken a liking to you."

Tony sighed, thinking back to the dimension he had just left – so at least he was, in all probability, back in his own dimension, as the relationships seemed to be identical.

„Well, hostage sounds just peachy to me. And I am warning you, Doom. You are bringing the joint forces of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four down on yourself, and even your over-inflated ego should realise this isn't the best idea. Also, just give up, you won't be able to open the armour."

Doom stepped closer again, another pleasant smile on his face (creepy). „Iron Man, I like my food canned. Just wait and see." With that he returned to his device, apparently some kind of computer terminal.

Despite his nonchalance Tony was genuinely worried; Doom might be a megalomaniac madman, but he was also a brilliant megalomaniac madman. Of course it was almost impossible to unlock his armour, he had used his most advanced algorithms to guard his hardware... but Tony was too smart to assume that he had thought of everything. He had to do something before Doom had time to think up a solution. Perhaps the old Stark-mind trick would help?

„So, Doom, have you burnt any Renoirs lately?"

The other man looked up, but only for a few seconds. „If this is your attempt to lure me into a discussion about art, then I'm seriously disappointed, Stark. But what could one expect from a spoiled playboy?"

„True, I'm not exactly a fan of art anyway. I like to keep it simple, so I just watch old movies, for example that space flick about this bald Captain and his crew... what is the title again? Ahhh, yes – Star Wars."

Doom sighed. „Captain Picard is from Star Trek."

„That can't be right, the Captain's name is Kirk."

„Kirk is from the original series, Picard is from the next generation." Suddenly Tony felt the searing pain again. „In my experience pain is a great teacher, I expect you to remember the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek, Stark."

„Is that how your mother taught you, Vic? No wonder you became a super-villain."

His words had the desired effect, Doom go so riled up that he strode to Tony. He braced himself for the trademark Doom-monologue, but instead of delivering his usual rant, Doom stared to chant in a mysterious language ( _I hate magic!_ ). Images of his time as an alcoholic started to fill Tony's mind, and he regretted that he had provoked Doom. His memories seemed strangely distorted; they got mixed up with some of the Civil War. Overwhelming guilt and shame, even fear overcame him as the relieved the horrible moments when he fought Steve.

„So you actually felt guilty for doing what you thought was right?" sneered Doom. „You're pathetic!"

Tony caught his breath and answered: „Funny, and I always thought that you're pathetic because you actually think what you're doing _is right and justified_."

„As much as I enjoy your illusion that your rambling is witty, I'm afraid that it's time to end this." Suddenly Doom released the force field that was holding Tony. Tony was surprised; it had to be some kind of ruse.

„What a pity, Vic, I was just about to get used to your lovely face."

But Doom just turned around and said: „You're free to go, Iron Man."

In this very moment Tony realised that he couldn't move. The display of his suit changed from his usual azure blue to green. _Damn it!_ Doom had hacked his armour, he had _hacked him! Fucking magic!_

„Kneel before Doom," the monarch of Latveria commanded. And he knelt.

Tony was utterly helpless as he heard his voice modulator activate, it said only three words, but it was enough to make him truly afraid: „Glory to Doom."

Doom was towering above him, another sneer on his face. In the suit, Tony desperately tried to wrest back control, but all to no avail. Doom had obviously managed to overtake his software programming using either a virus or some magic trick. Or even worse, was Doom able to control him directly, to control the suit through him the way he had just controlled his mind, making him see those horrible memories? Tony shuddered. At least his hardware still seemed to be safe, as Doom didn't release the armour to examine his tech.

„That's better. Now, how shall we pass the time, what do you think, Stark?"

Tony remained silent, as he didn't think he could even still communicate, with Doom in charge of the voice modulator. But when nothing happened for a few seconds, Doom murmured something and a new wave of pain rolled over him. He clenched his teeth, but a little whimper still escaped his lips, a whimper that promptly made Doom's smile even wider. So he could still hear him and was actually intent on playing his sarcastic games. The bastard.

„Now, answer me. How shall we pass the time?"

„I don't know", Tony said through still clenched teeth, „I'm told I do a fantastic pole dance?"

„I am becoming tired of this", Doom said coldly.

„Yes, you should go and have a little beauty sleep, I have heard it does wonders for wrinkles. And when you wake up again, I am sure you'll be back to your usual sunny disposition, grumpy."

Doom sneered. „I think not. However, I would like you to make yourself useful during your extended stay here."

„So you're into pole dancing after all? Doctor, I never...!"

Doom stepped closer menacingly. „If you don't watch your mouth, Stark, I will consider putting poles to other uses!"

„What, magnetism?"

Tony immediately regretted his banter when Doom took up his chanting again. Damn him and his quick mouth. Maybe he should take this up with his psychologist sometime, explore whether his behaviour was borderline suicidal, or something. Subconscious wish for self-destruction. Not something he was known for, of course, Tony thought bitterly.

The funny feeling in his mind turned into another vortex of memory. He saw himself and Reed, in the arena, the Hulk forcing them to fight one another, him waking up in the middle of a heap of corpses, murders that Yinsen's kid had forced him to commit, Steve, lying dead on the cold examination table in the helicarrier, Tony abandoning himself to hopeless sobbing... When the wave of images subsided, Tony was left desperately gasping for air. He instinctively tried to release the helmet in order to get more air, only to remember that he couldn't –

When he had calmed down a little and the black spots in front of his eyes had dissipated, he saw Doom smiling diabolically. He turned around, switched on a holographic projection and began to talk.

„To the ‚heroes'" – Tony could practically hear the quotation marks – „of New York. Your ally Iron Man is in my hands." Tony felt the camera turning on him. „As I am already getting tired of his moronic banter, I concede to release him. Under one condition: Reed Richards and Steven Rogers are to come to Latveria and negotiate. Alone." Click, silence. Doom seemed to send the video off somewhere.

„What are you up to, Doom?", Tony asked, and his voice sounded weaker than he would have liked.

Doom turned to him and Tony couldn't help but shudder at the diabolical glint in his eyes. „Just wait and see, Stark, just wait and see..."

xxXXxx

„Well, that's disquieting..." murmured Reed. „What?" asked Steve, somewhat tired. Reed was sitting in Cap's living room and had a whole computer terminal projected via his holocommunicator. A little red dot was blinking in one corner of the projector, but Reed ignored it.

Carol had just drunk another coffee and was quite sure that Richards had just found some – at least for him – especially interesting, albeit useless detail about Tony's situation. Reed stretched his head into the kitchen, and let his body follow as he said: „It seems that the reason why Tony reacted too strongly to my detox-serum was, that he... he is a heavy drinker. The data on his liver suggests that he has been drinking for months if not years."

Carol felt like her brain was stuck processing the information that Tony, _her_ Tony had been drinking _and she hadn't realised it!_ Steve seemed equally disturbed.

„I don't believe that! It can't be!" he said. „I would've seen it!"

„Believe me, Captain, I'm as baffled as you..."

„Do you hear yourself, Richards?! ‚Baffled'? Show at least some em-"

„Shut up, both of you! I don't know what kind of issues you two have, but I don't care!" said Carol dangerously quiet. „So put your dicks back in your pants and let's help Tony. After that you can go on with your ego-trips!"

At this very moment the door to Steve's bedroom opened and Tony appeared in the doorframe. He was even paler than before and was visibly shaking. „Nice to hear that, sweetie, but tell me one thing, why did you let that maniac inoculate me in the first place?" Tony didn't speak in his usually pleasant intonation, his voice sounded strained. Carol was taken aback by his unexpected appearance, she had been certain that he would sleep for at least two more hours.

„Tony," began Steve, „I... I don't know what to say... Reed told us that according to his scans... What triggered the relapse?"

„What relapse?"

„Tony, my data indicated that you are an alcoholic..." said Reed, but Tony interrupted him.

„Are you so socially inept that you would think that I'm not getting the meaning? Or do you think that you're the only smart person on earth and that the rest of us are so fucking dense that we require your help to understand even the most banal things?"

Tony still didn't quite look at Reed, but rather somewhere to the left of his shoulder; his fists were clenched and his posture was even more tense than it had been seconds before.

Reed opened his mouth, then closed it again without saying anything, like a fish. There was a suspicious gleam in his eyes, and with a start Carol realised that he was close to tears. And that really wasn't a sight she needed in her life – Reed Richards, who could outsmart almost anyone and destroy their self-confidence with a few poignant and often insensitive words, reduced to tears like a little boy. She took a step forwards to keep them apart (but neither seemed very keen on advancing anyways) and was shocked to see that Tony positively recoiled the moment she came closer.

„Tony-"

„Stay back", Tony hissed. Then he seemed to realise what he had said and raised a hand that was trembling slightly. „No, wait, Carol, I'm sorry. It's just... Why did you let him do that to me?" His eyes seemed huge in the dim light of the living room.

„Tony, I don't understand", Carol said, by now close to desperation herself. „What on earth is going on? Reed is your _friend_. _I_ am your friend, and so is Steve. Why have you not told us about the relapse?"

Tony's face seemed to crumble. He raised his trembling hands to his face and buried it in them for a moment, and then went on to comb them through his hair. „I... There was no relapse. I have always been a drinker, just one who was rather good at hiding it. Okay?"

He looked up at her with the ghost of a bitter smile, and Carol turned to Steve and Reed, not knowing what to say or do. The latter had his mouth open and a look of utter incomprehension on his face; Steve, meanwhile, was stepping closer to Tony. For one moment, it looked like Tony was about to recoil again, but then he visibly checked himself and stood still. Steve extended his hand and put it on Tony's shoulder.

„Tony... You are a sick man. You need help", Steve said in hushed tones.

A laugh escaped Tony's mouth and it sounded almost shrill in the silence of the apartment. „Cap, what I _really_ need is a drink. This _genius_ " – he almost spit out the word – „over here had the brilliant idea of sobering up a severe alcoholic all in one go. My body is protesting, and by protesting I mean shutting down, so you'd better get out your best Whiskey right now."

Cap looked revolted, but before he could react, Reed interjected. „Steve, I don't believe him."

„What is that supposed to mean?", Steve demanded, taking his hand off Tony's shoulder and turning to Reed.

Reed took a deep breath. „Well, for one thing, Tony's behaviour radically changed a few days ago. Were the alcohol the cause and had he been an alcoholic for years, there would be no reason whatsoever for this change to occur."

„Richards, I swear -", Tony hissed.

„Tony, you lost on all five boards. Something changed."

Tony seemed to be close to losing it now, eyes wild. „I lost at chess? At _chess_?! That is what cues you into my inner life?! And you call yourself my _friend_?!"

„Tony, I don't understand, I thought you trusted me, you even wanted me to operate on you, I -"

A strange choking sound escaped Tony's mouth, and the rest of colour seemed to seep out of his face. His voice was almost a whisper when he said: „Richards, I am going to _kill_ you -"

Carol had rarely seen Tony so out of control, trembling all over, in a mixture of rage and... utter terror?

However, almost even more frightening was the change reflected in Reed's face. From one moment to the next, he seemed to close off, and his eyes became cold. His demeanour was that of a man used to being obeyed when he turned to Carol and Steve.

„Carol, Captain. Please restrain Tony. Something is seriously wrong with him and we have to find out what it is before he hurts any of us or himself. I will sedate him while I work."

Tony seemed to go into a state of abject horror at Reed's words and braced his hands on the wall, swaying where he was standing. Carol seethed. „WHAT?! THAT is your great plan?!"

„Carol, please. I am almost positive I know what is going on with Tony. He must have contracted a virus out in space on the mission that leads to the degeneration of his brain functions. I can have an antidote ready shortly. But until then, we have to prevent further degeneration of his brain by sedating him, reducing his brain function almost to zero. Restrain him."

His tone was all business as he was preparing another syringe from the kit on the table behind him. „Reed, are you sure?", Cap asked, looking from Tony – apparently only barely conscious from how terrified he was, leaning on the wall – to Carol and Reed and back.

„92%", the genius replied. Cap sighed and signalled Carol to advance. Carol, torn, hesitated, but when she saw Steve getting ready to manhandle Tony she decided to obey (for now). She carefully gripped Tony's right arm, while Cap was holding his left, put a hand on his forehead and held it back to give Reed access to his neck. Tony barely struggled, apparently in a world of horror of his own.

When Reed had administered the drug, it only took a few seconds until she felt Tony relax in her arms. She held him to her chest until he was fully unconscious, then carefully lifted him and put him back into the bed. Meanwhile, Reed was taking the parts of his armour and carrying them into the living room, while Cap was waiting by the door, closing and locking it behind them when they were done.

Carol let herself fall into a chair and rubbed her eyes. „Well, this has gone to shit." Steve nodded tersely, while Reed had already started up his computer systems again, loading the mainframe of the Baxter Building. He started typing furiously. Carol felt utterly inadequate while Reed was working in silence and Steve was pacing up and down nervously.

Suddenly, though, she heard Reed utter a little sound of surprise. When she looked up, the holographic screen flickered and the face of Doctor Doom appeared.


	4. Yellow Lightning

Doom had ordered the suit into his dining hall, which was why Tony was now sitting on one end of a ridiculously long dining table, looking at Victor von Doom sipping champagne and listening to a Brahms violin quartet performed by a group of Latverians that looked rather terrified.

Doom smiled. „Are you enjoying the music, Iron Man? Would it heighten your musical enjoyment to share a glass of this 1897 Moët & Chandon with me?"

Tony sighed. „You know what, Doomy? Flirting works better if at least one of the parties involved isn't a nutcase in a tin suit. Also, I would at least have expected a concert by you on the organ. Please, do me the favour and tick some more cliché-movie-supervillain boxes."

Tony knew that his nonchalance was kind of ticking Doom off, but he couldn't help himself. This was really getting on his nerves. And no one had reacted to Doom's recorded message. What the hell was going on? Where the Avengers and the FF so busy they hadn't even seen it yet? Or was something more important happening at the moment, something that kept them from coming to his aid?

Doom also seemed to be getting progressively testier. He wasn't used to being kept waiting, that one. Now, however, he just raised his hand and signalled a servant to fill another glass with Champagne and put it in front of Tony. The Brahms piece went into the Adagio. Oh no.

Doom sneered. „You know what, Stark? I liked what I saw in those glimpses into your mind. So many jokes, yet such suicidal sadness. Drink."

Without his volition, his hand gripped the glass and put it to the mouth slit of the helmet. _Nonononono_. It was tilted and Tony tried to keep his mouth shut as the liquid entered the mask. It went into his nose, filled up the limited space in the helmet, streaming down his face, and it _didn't_ _stop_... He sputtered, tasted the Champagne on his tongue, and it made him want to _puke_ \- until suddenly, the glass was lowered again. Tony heaved, staring across the table at Doom, who was obviously enjoying the show (God, the _sounds_ he must have made...).

„Well, this was enjoyable. Now, I shall go and check whether Richards has finally, finally, decided to come to the aid of his dear friend... Or should he not care enough after all?"

When Doom had left, Tony was still sitting stock still (to be fair, it wasn't as if he had much of a choice). The _bastard_. The musicians had stopped playing and were whispering amongst themselves. However, a few minutes later the suit suddenly stood up. Well, damn, it actually really _hurt_ if he tried to hold against it, his body being encased in tons of metal alloy with more strength than any human could ever muster. What the hell was Doom up to now...

He walked down a dark flight of chairs, past portraits of Doom in various regal poses (and people told _him_ he was narcissistic), until what looked like the door to a cell. It opened automatically in front of him and when he stepped inside he saw a skinny woman cowering before him. Before he had any time to register anything else, the suit lifted his right arm and he blasted the woman right into her heart with his repulsors.

She fell to the ground instantly, and the silence that followed was deafening. Tony felt disconnected, as if he were floating somewhere above his body. He was vaguely aware of the voice modulator of the suit being turned on and uttering some words that he couldn't make out through the haze that seemed to envelop him. He felt tears on his cheeks, but he didn't make a sound. Maybe he was in shock, he thought dimly. Suddenly, he heard Doom's maniacal laughter in his ears.

„How did you like that, Stark? Does it remind you of some of the things you have done while drunk? Well, you are drunk now, so there isn't much of a difference, I suppose. We shall have a good time together. Thank you for your services, Iron Man."

Tony felt hot anger boiling up, and he started to shout at Doom: „FUCK YOU! _You're just a piece of..._ " Doom shocked him again, the pain would have brought him down on his knees, but since the suit didn't move he almost blacked out while still standing.

„Mind your manners, Stark. Aren't you going to make a witty remark? No joke?" Doom sounded like he was about to laugh again. Tony felt sick, he relived the moment _he_ had killed the woman over and over again, he wanted to scream, he wanted to beat Doom into a pulp, he wanted to throw up, but he or rather his suit just stood there waiting for Doom's next order. Never in his entire life had Tony felt more useless. The bitter agony of failure swept over him as Tony struggled to consolidate his thoughts: _Think Stark, you have to find a way out of this! You can wallow in self-pity AFTER you've kicked Doom's tin-plated ass!_

„You WILL regret this, Doom! I swear!"

„A pity, until now you haven't given in to melodrama – how boring. You made jokes about super-villain-clichés earlier, but I assure you that those super-hero-lectures about _justice_ and _simplistic morality_ are much more overused."

Tony gritted his teeth and remained silent, he didn't have time for this, he had to regain control over his armour again and make all of this _stop_. Doom had apparently lost interest in him, he just turned around and left the cell.

xxXXxx

„Richards, you have chosen to ignore my last message. As I am merciful, I have decided to let you know this way that I've captured one of your... precious comrades in arms," said Dr. Doom in a haughty way. „Iron Man not only tried to invade my beloved Latveria, but he also failed miserably."

Carol couldn't believe what she was hearing, Tony was with them! Why would Doom call to sneer if he wasn't absolutely sure that it was indeed Tony Stark he'd captured? Seemingly Reed thought along the same lines.

„Victor", Richards began, „what kind of ruse is this? You can't possibly have cap..."

„Do not try my patience, Richards! Don't you dare mock me!" Doom sounded agitated, and an agitated Doom was always bad.

Cap stepped in: „Doom, I don't know what you're up to, but we know for a fact that Iron Man isn't your prisoner."

Doom laughed. „Hmmm, interesting, lying or incompetent? No matter, you will pay for your insolence!" And with that the call ended. Carol was worried and turned to Steve.

„What was this about? How can Doom possibly believe that he has Tony?" Before Cap could answer, a second transmission came in, it was from Doom and it showed a cell, possibly in Doom's castle.

„It's a live feed," said Reed.

They saw a skinny woman crouching in one corner. When she noticed that she was being filmed, she shouted something in Latverian.

Suddenly Iron Man, or at least someone in an Iron Man armour stepped into the picture. Carol watched in horror as the man in the armour lifted his right arm and killed the woman in front of him without hesitation. Then he turned toward the camera and said calmly: „All hail Doom!" Suddenly Doom appeared.

„The death of this woman is on your conscience, this is your punishment for doubting Doom! If you wish to avoid further bloodshed I recommend that you try to stop my new ally!"

He laughed. Carol had seldom heard Victor von Doom laughing and it was unsettling to hear it.

Cap cursed under his breath. „Damn it, it is an obvious trap, but we have to spring it. We need to wake Tony and ask him if he's missing an armour. If we are truly to fight that thing we have to know it's specs."

„We should keep Tony out of it," protested Carol, „he is sick! Certainly there is another way to ascertain if armour is missing."

„Well, I could use my codes to connect with the servers in Tony's lab, Jarvis should be able to give us the desired information." Carol was mildly surprised, she hadn't been aware that Richards had even those codes, he and Tony were apparently a lot closer than she had imagined. Cap just nodded and Reed set up the connection.

A few minutes later they had the confirmation, two suits of the newest generation weren't in the armoury, and since one of them lay in the next room it meant that Doom had access to Tony's state of the art technology.

„Strange, isn't it?" remarked Carol. „Doom has Tony's tech and not Tony himself, why does he want to make us believe that he holds Tony prisoner?"

„It is, but either way we have to get the suit back, otherwise the media will destroy the Avengers – we have a drunk Tony and an out of control armour, nobody would believe us even if we told the truth: They will believe that Tony did kill that woman and that he committed all future crimes Doom incites by using the armour."

Carol nodded. It would indeed be a disaster that could cost the Avengers their legitimacy. „So, what do you suggest? Reed, can you access the specs of the suit via Jarvis so that we have a chance of stopping it and keeping Tony out of it?"

Reed turned to the holographic screen again. A few seconds later, the full specs of the model in question were downloaded into his mainframe. „Yes, no problem. If Victor uses the automatic fighting mode, we shouldn't face any particular problems. And neither himself nor anyone else will be able to learn to pilot the Iron Man with anything close to Tony's prowess in such a short time."

Steve nodded tersely. „So we call in some reinforcements to make sure, transport Tony to Avengers tower where he'll stay sedated for the near future, and leave for Latveria immediately."

„I agree, Captain, we have to leave Tony out of this, with the unstable behaviour he has displayed recently we'd both run the danger of having him act in an unpredictable manner and worsening his state. However, I would suggest transporting him to the Baxter Building, where I can instruct H.E.R.B.I.E to take care of him and he doesn't have access to Jarvis, should he wake up. This will ensure his compliance", Reed said.

Carol stared at him for a second, still surprised at the cold, professional leader-persona he had assumed since sedating Tony. For the first time she understood why he was the respected leader of a superhero group as opposed to just some wacky professor.

Cap clenched his jaw, but apparently he couldn't find fault with what Reed had said, even though he had surely tried his hardest. „Agreed. Let's get to it."

xxXXxx

Tony had no choice but to follow Doom into his throne room. Everything was clad in green banners with a stylised „D" on it. Doom sat on the massive metallic throne; as he came closer Tony realised that it was made out of components from Doombots. Doom initiated a holographic computer terminal and displayed a map, two little green points could be seen.

„It seems that your so-called friends have decided to come for you, Stark," Doom sneered and pointed at the green points on the map. Tony realised with horror that Doom had lured his friends into coming to Latveria. Suddenly everything fell into place, so Doom hadn't just tortured him by making him kill the latverian woman, but he seemingly also used it to compel the Avengers into springing into action even though they probably knew that it was a set up!

„I suggest you greet your comrades accordingly, Stark," said Doom.

„So you want them to kill me, is that it, Doom?"

„Au contraire, my dear Iron Man. I want you to kill them. You have never unleashed the full power of your suit, haven't you? You were always afraid to actually _hurt_ anybody. I saw into your mind, I saw you holding back when beating up Rogers, full of sentimentality. What would happen if somebody would unleash you, I wonder?"

Tony knew that Doom was right, his armour was indeed a lethal weapon, he had given up his occupation as arms manufacturer and tried, so help him god, he had tried to build devices to propagate peace, but the simple, brutal truth was: He had actually build the most destructive weapon of all. His armour walked towards the terrace adjoining the throne room, and Tony had only one hope left: that Doom hadn't figured out how to utilise the armour to its fullest extent.

As soon as he had stepped on the terrace Doom joined him. „Latveria is a beautiful country, isn't it?"

Tony saw the forests, the mountains the small rivers running through the countryside, and on any other day he might actually have agreed with Doom. But the prospect of having to fight against his friends in combination with what he had been made to do and the wine he could still taste on his lips set up his stomach, he thought that he was going to throw up. _Calm down_ , he told himself, and said: „A pity that I can't smell the beautiful latverian flowers, Vic, oh wait.." And with that he vomited into his suit. Everything seemed to turn around him.

At least he had designed his suit to drain any fluids that were inside it – thankfully it was still working and soon the armour was cleansed.

„Bah, pathetic," snorted Doom, „but now to the main event..."

Tony felt how the thrusters were activated, despite the cool interior of his suit he felt how sweat started to run down his face. Then he flew off to kill and maim at Doom's bidding.

At first, though, nothing happened for quite a while. Which made perfect sense, Tony reflected, as whoever it was who came to save him ( _Steve? Reed? God, please no_ ) would take a while to get to Latveria, even at supersonic speed in a Quinjet. Doom had made the suit land in the town square and switched off his end of the communication device. So Tony just stood there and looked at the Latverians, at first scuttling away in fear, then curiously edging closer, in the end laughing and knocking on his helmet and taking pictures of themselves with an inert Iron Man. At some point, though, an elderly woman seemed to make a comment about Doom that he couldn't understand (so the automatic translator was disabled too), and suddenly the suit sprang into action. It raised his right arm – Tony tried to resist, but _God_ , the pain – and aimed a repulsor on her, firing but missing her by an inch. The woman stared in shock as the voice of the Iron Man (that Tony had come to think of as _his_ voice) made a declaration in Latverian that Tony didn't get either, but it was surely full of „bow down before the glory of Doom, all hail Doom"-s and the like, Tony thought bitterly (the _bastard_ ).

Suddenly, Tony heard a noise that he recognised well, and sure enough, a few seconds later the Latverian crowd was dispersing in fear as a Quinjet was descending into the square. Out jumped Cap, Ben Grimm, Hawkeye, Wasp, Invisible Woman, Carol and Reed. For a short moment, they stood around uncertainly, looking at the suit. Tony swallowed. „Doom, please. Don't make me do this."

Instead of an answer, he just heard a snicker. And then all hell broke loose.

Janet flew towards him at breath-taking speed as Clint deployed one of his shocker-arrows. Tony – or rather his armour – deflected the arrow with ease, raising a defensive field, while shooting repulsor blasts at Janet. At first he missed, Janet approached, all the while bombarding him with her venom stings, but as she was only a few inches from his face, getting ready for a further shrinking, no doubt – of course he knew all her moves, _as did his armour_ – the suit deployed a refractory chest beam that hurled her into the nearest house. Tony screamed inside the suit as he saw her fall down unconsciously, or worse.

„JAAN, NOOOO!"

But of course no one could hear him; instead the modulator switched on and he heard ‚his' voice say: „That is how Doom deals with annoying bugs." Classy, Doom, Tony thought, teeth clenched.

At the announcement, Clint's face contorted in fury. „Doom, you lousy bastard. You think you have the right to abuse Tony's tech for your own twisted agenda?!"

 _Wait a moment, Tony's tech?_ It wasn't just his tech... But before Tony could devote any further thought to the matter, Clint was upon him, kicking his helmet. What was that? Clint knew very well that kicking a tin suit wasn't the most effective course of action...

Suddenly, though, Tony felt white-hot pain coursing through his veins as the shocker that Clint must now have affixed to his suit directly did its work. He saw black dots swimming in his vision and heard himself scream. So Doom must have deactivated the dampeners and shock absorbers on his suit, the ones that usually made sure that the pain from such an attack would be negligible. Well, now it wasn't, thank you very much.

However, the armour wasn't bothered in the slightest by its wearer's anguish. He heard a sickening crunch as the suit's fist connected with Clint's head, who of course hadn't been able to factor in the superhuman reaction times of his tech.

Clint fell down, and Tony heard himself scream even louder as Doom aimed his repulsor on his fallen comrade.

„ _Noooo, please, nooo!_ "

He was screaming himself hoarse. But all to no avail – he fired and Clint didn't move anymore.

Tony felt hot tears running down his cheeks.

How could...

Clint...

In his ear, he heard Doom's laughter.

A vibration that shook him to his very core brought him back to the present, and with it, a fight that he was still excelling at against his will. Cap's shield had banged against the protective field that the suit had raised, and he saw Sue, eyebrows tightly drawn together, manifesting a force field that he could barely deflect. It felt like a fist squeezing his head, even in the armour ( _God_ , being on Sue's bad side really wasn't enjoyable, he thought, trying and failing to lighten his own mood). Reed was nowhere to be seen, neither were Ben or Carol (maybe recharging her energy in the upper atmosphere?). Sue grimaced and he felt his force field flicker, for a second.

At that precise moment he felt something or someone crushing his head in an enormous fist. Tony screamed, the pain was overwhelming, he blacked out for a moment, and when he came to again Ben was stomping on him. Yes, quite literally stomping (good old Hulk-moves). He felt some of his ribs shatter. „Ben, please..." He couldn't scream anymore, and he felt something wet and warm on his tongue (blood?).

In his ear, he heard Doom sneer: „Well, well, Iron Man, it seems your comrades aren't exactly intent on not harming you. Have you become such a burden to them that they prefer getting rid of you?" Tony heard a pathetic whimper escaping his own mouth as his clavicle was broken. God, was Ben really trying to kill him?

But again, his suit was tougher than its wearer (the irony). Tony felt the thrusters activate ( _ouch_ , that hurt too, so probably a broken leg too, and _damn Doom_ for also deactivating the emergency anti-pain measures he had equipped the suit with). He pushed his legs up against Ben's massive frame and discharged. Ben staggered back, caught off guard. At that moment, the armour ( _damn his own battle registry)_ drew Ben in, as if to embrace him, activated the Hulkbuster-beam and shot him off into the upper atmosphere.

Tony saw the surprised look on his face as he disappeared into the distance, no doubt to suffocate or freeze to death in the stratosphere should no one get him back. _No_.

But Tony had no time to linger on Ben's fate, Steve threw his shield at him, the armour simply caught it with its enhanced battle protocols and threw it right back towards him. The sheer force knocked Cap off his feet and Tony sincerely hoped that this would knock him out and thereby take him out of the battle before his suit could do further harm. But with almost incredible agility Cap got back on his feet and ran towards him.

„STEVE! Stay away, the unibeam is about to..." But before he could finish the sentence his armour had charged up and shot at Cap, who barely managed to deflect the potentially lethal beam. Suddenly a powerful force stamped him into the ground and for a moment Tony thought that Ben had returned, but the armour readings showed that it was Sue who was grinding him into the mud.

„Interesting, isn't it?" chimed Doom in, „The real powerhouse of the Fantastic Four is Susan Richards, ah, shall we take her out? Richards will suffer the sweetest agonies... how delicious."

„Doom, STOP IT! You've proven that you are superior, let them..." begged Tony.

„Of course I'm superior, Stark."

During their conversation the suit had hammered on Sue's force field, the brute force generated a feedback which had given her a strong nosebleed. She let up but a moment, but it was enough for the battle protocols installed into the armour, it spun around its own axis and shot repulsor blasts at the remaining opponents. Suddenly it stopped and aimed a blast directly at Cap's shield, it got reflected and caught Sue off guard – the shot hit her sideways in the back and with a cry she went down.

Tony cursed loudly at Doom. Suddenly a proximity warning flashed across Tony's display and the suit initiated evasive action, but it was slightly too slow, it got partly caught in an orange beam that made Tony scream as every fibre in his body seemed to be torn apart. Tony almost blacked out, but on the edge of his consciousness he realised that Reed, who hadn't participated in the fight so far had possibly built a negative-cannon to literally pulverise his suit. Hadn't the suit pulled up its shields he would have been killed. Within a fraction of a second the battle protocol had found Reed who was standing next to the jet and aimed for another shot.

„Let's see how the so-called Mr. Fantastic handles a battery of grenades," sniggered Doom as the suit deployed several mini-grenades which flew towards Reed. Tony wanted to scream, he wanted to yell but his voice deserted him and he could only watch how Reed used his elastic abilities to literally slither away from the attack.

Before Tony could ascertain that his friend was unharmed Cap was on top of him, hammering his indestructible shield on Tony's helmet. The pain in his head, in his very brain was so excruciating that he threw up again. When a particularly violent blow hit him, Tony felt himself being drawn into the darkness at the edge of his mind. _Finally_.

But before he was fully gone, he felt something being rammed into his leg. As he inhaled sharply, the fog of unconsciousness all of a sudden gone from his mind, he heard Doom's voice in his ear, deceptively sweet: "Now, now, Stark, you didn't think I'd let you slip out that easily? After all, your suit is so _neatly_ equipped with a variety of drugs, and adrenaline does wonder in cases such as yours…"

Tony wanted to scream, every fibre in his body _burned_ with pain that he was now even more acutely aware of, he felt that he was being torn apart… But the armour itself was almost unharmed and simply grabbed Cap by his throat.

„Oh, that would also be too easy, wouldn't it, Stark? I've seen your memories of the Civil War..." With these words the suit released Cap, who immediately regained his composure and started to beat up the suit – and Tony – without holding back. Under the barrage of hits Tony felt how a few more of his ribs broke, he started to cough up blood.

„Did you know that Stark always held back when he was fighting you, Captain?" asked Doom via Tony's voice modulator. Steve looked up in surprise, the armour just took hold of his right arm and broke it, the dry noise of a crackling bone sent chills down Tony's spine. But before the suit could harm Cap further a yellow lightning descended from the sky.


	5. Burnt Rubber

Carol was absorbing solar energy up in the stratosphere when her commlink activated itself.

„Carol! The Iron Man suit just blew Ben into orbit!" Steve yelled. „Get him!"

She tracked Ben's signal and flew towards him, the armour had hit him with a supercharged blast and he had already left the upper stratosphere when she reached him. Carol grabbed his torso.

„Ben! Are you alright?" But he didn't answer, she couldn't be sure if he was just unconscious from the thin air or if... No, Ben was too tough! But if the armour was strong enough to outplay a seasoned hero like Ben Grimm it meant that the others were in trouble. Damn! She had hoped that she would have more time to charge, but she had to go back to Steve and end it before anybody got hurt! Carol flew straight to the jet – perhaps Reed could take care of Ben.

As soon as she drew closer to the battlefield her worst presumptions were confirmed: Hawkeye was lying on the ground, deep burn marks all over his body, Janet was nowhere to be seen. She touched down next to the Quinjet and let Ben down. Sue was also defeated, apparently shot, Reed who was also injured and had his uniform almost ripped off his body – Richards could be injured? That was news to her – slowly crawled towards his wife. It took Carol only seconds to analyse the situation and to realise that the rogue Iron Man suit was about to bash Steve's head in.

„NO!" she yelled and flew to the armour at what felt like light speed, she grabbed it and it let Steve go. Her hand dug deep into the metal as she was dragging the armour away from her friend. Carol charged her hands with the last remaining bit of solar power, she would crush this tin can into a pulp! But right before she was about to utterly destroy the armour she heard something... a weak, yet familiar voice...

„Carol... please stop!"

 _Tony!_ She heard Tony's voice! But how was this possible? Tony was in New York, wasn't he? Was this some ruse by Doom?

For the first time, she studied the suit below her in detail. She flinched when she realised that there was blood seeping out of the side of the chest piece, blood obviously belonging to someone inside it. And she heard someone's ragged breathing.

„Tony?"

A faint voice replied: „God, you can hear me… yes Carol… Doom is controlling my suit… Hasn't he told you…"

Carol let go of the neckpiece of the armour in absolute shock. _Oh my God_ , she had almost killed Tony, ripped him apart! But how…

Before she had time for further reflection, she heard the unibeam come to life. A massive discharge sent her flying into the next wall. _Damn it_.

While she was still trying to get her head together enough to get up, the armour was suddenly upon her. Carol felt the rest of her solar power seethe in her fingers. But _Tony_ was in the suit, she couldn't simply hit him with it! Oh God, how the armour must jostle him, when he was obviously injured, bleeding out…

The armour gripped her by her neck. She heard Tony's voice again.

„Carol, please, please take me out… I can't do this, I can't kill my friends, I…" His voice faltered.

Carol felt tears running down her cheeks as she lifted her hands to send the last of her energy up into the roof of the building they were in. She couldn't hit him directly, she wouldn't.

Carol heard Tony groan in pain as the debris hit the suit. Doom must have done something to its shielding, normally, Tony wouldn't even flinch at something like that…

But the suit wasn't bothered. It simply kept at her neck. Carol started seeing black spots and desperately sent a last, weak discharge of energy into the helmet, which only resulted in a another scream from Tony.

Then she passed out.

xxXXxx

When Tony woke up, his head felt like he'd been run over by a truck. Well, it was comforting to know that at least some things in life always stayed the same, no matter what universe he was in.

He carefully turned his head to look around. He was in a lab, full of high-tech equipment, on a stretcher and hooked up to some creepy-looking equipment. A tube went from his arm to a bag full of some dodgy-looking yellow goo. _How lovely._

When he turned his head further, he saw what looked like a portal and a blond lad sitting next to it, his back turned to Tony, looking through some glossy magazine.

 _No. Nonononono_. This was Johnny Storm, he knew that head. That _maniac_ Richards had actually brought him into the Baxter building… No.

Tony desperately tried to fight the rising panic attack, reminding himself of the fact that this wasn't _his_ Richards, everything was okay. This wasn't the guy who had spent an hour killing him slowly and painfully, all the while monologuing away about his inferiority complex and plans for world dominion. _This_ Richards was perfectly normal (ok, he had a rather loose definition of the word 'normal'), he was this world's Tony's friend, he would never hurt him that way. (Then again, a little voice in his head said, he had inoculated him against his will while he had been sleeping, so maybe he was only one step away from being a supervillain as well…)

The heart monitor he was hooked up to had started going crazy, upping the volume in pace with his racing pulse. And suddenly, the blond lad turned around.

„Hey, you're awake! Why are you awake?"

He frowned and came over to the stretcher. In a heartbeat, Tony had sprung to his feet (this wasn't worse than his more or less constant hangover, no, it really wasn't, _ouch_ ). He almost pulled over the monitor he was hooked up to in doing so.

Johnny took a quick step forwards, catching it, then looking at Tony curiously.

„Hey Stark, good to see you awake. Actually, no, you should be sleeping, man, Reed is going to _kill_ me."

He turned to the monitor and started fiddling with the controls. Just as he uttered a quiet „well, shit, should have paid better attention" under his breath, Tony hit him over the head with the fire extinguisher affixed to the wall beside him. He went down like a stone.

Ok, so maybe that hadn't been the best idea ever, Tony thought nervously. Overreaction, Stark, get a grip! _Not your world_! But at least now he should be free of the great 'care' that his (or other-Tony's) friends here had bestowed upon him. So much for spending a few nice days in a universe where some of your friends are actually still _alive_ , Tony thought bitterly. _Escapism, woo!_

Speaking of which, he should get out of here. It being the Baxter building had one distinctive advantage: there would certainly be a dimensional portal somewhere that he could use to get back to his own world. Actually, Tony was surprised that his counterpart from this world hadn't yet done the same. Him being, well, him, essentially, he should easily be bright enough to find a dimensional gate somewhere and use it correctly…

 _Hope he's okay and hasn't met my world's Reed_ , Tony thought; well, that would be quite something, the psychopath would probably be really happy about having another brain to cut into! And other-Tony wouldn't know to beware of him!

 _Calm down, Tony, Reed's in prison_ , Tony told himself, getting up after checking Johnny Storms vitals (all perfectly normal, he would probably wake up again soon) and walking towards the portal that he had been sitting beside.

Well, okay, this was close, but not it, Tony decided after a few check-ups. Definitely a portal into the negative zone. Haha, this Richards had a _portal into the negative zone in his tower_. What could possibly go wrong. God, so maybe all the different Reeds had a certain proneness for craziness.

As Tony turned to leave the lab, he realised that he was sealed in. _Damn it_. Tony sighed and went to what was certainly Reed's work terminal. He started up the systems and was pleasantly surprised to have the voice of an A. I. greet him.

„This is H.E.R.B.I.E. Identification please."

Tony hesitated, then decided to go with the truth (for now). „Tony Stark".

There was a slight pause. „Tony Stark voiceprint and DNA match complete. Mr. Stark, you have been locked out of the systems of the Baxter building."

Tony grinned. „So that means I at some point had access to the systems?"

„Yes, Mr. Stark."

Perfect. Tony opened the terminal, short wired some circuits, effectively silencing H.E.R.B.I.E ( _sorry_ ), started typing furiously, and after a while he had actually managed to find the log of his Baxter building profile. He had even had some of his own lab equipment here at some point, apparently, and designed an earlier iteration of his suit in the labs of this building…

Tony frowned. This world's Tony and this world's Reed must have had a very good relationship, if other-Tony was anything like him at all, paranoid about his tech and so on (and he seriously couldn't imagine anything else, otherwise, he wouldn't really be like _him_ at all, would he, and the safeguards he'd had to bypass at Stark tower told a different story). Otherwise the guy would _never_ have worked on his own stuff here. He smiled bitterly. Oh well, he had really gotten the lucky pass when it came to iterations of Reed Richards to put up with, it seemed. There was a slight churning of guilt in his stomach at how he had treated this world's Reed earlier.

A few more minutes passed, and with the help of his old log Tony had bypassed all the security algorithms that Richards had put in place and reactivated his (or other-Tony's) security clearance. The algorithms were very elegant, he had to give him that – but then again, Tony had always been the slightly better coder than Reed, also in their own universe.

He went on to unlock the lab door and started a query for unusual dimensional activity that should lead him right to the portal. But then he hesitated. Before he left, he felt he had to find the suit that Carol, Steve and Richards had taken from him. He quickly typed in another command. The systems immediately alerted him to a cupboard in the sub-basement, right next to where other-Tony apparently kept his equipment.

Tony went to get the suit and put it on immediately, sighing with contentment at the feeling of the cold metal on his skin. That was better. Now they could come and try to dope him up some more…

Speaking of which, he was feeling better; Richards must have inoculated him with something to dissipate the horrible withdrawal symptoms he had suffered earlier. However, he was more than looking forward to a glass of Whiskey, once back home…

He re-entered the lab and heard the program he had started up beeping furiously. Tony went over to the terminal, certain that it would show him the location of the dimensional portal he was sure existed in the Baxter Building. But it didn't. Or actually, it didn't _just_ show the portal in the Baxter building. He frowned.

The second signal that had alerted the program came from… Latveria. Doom. Oh God, not _that_ guy on top of everything else. Even though he was pretending to be a 'good guy' now, Tony was sure that that was only an act and keeping a close eye on him… Then again, given that this Richards was apparently a good guy, maybe this Doom was too? Maybe they were great friends and he could go over for some tea (and by tea, he meant Whiskey, God, he really missed his Whiskey)? And nicely ask whether he could have a quick stab at Doom's interdimensional portal, while he's there, should the one in the Baxter building turn out not to work?

He quickly switched to the personal database of Richards, and ok, no, not a good guy, shame. And there was unusual interdimensional activity going on where he was right now… Could it be that this world's Tony had found his way back, but had inadvertently landed in Latveria, coming through Doom's portal? That could be baaaad, looking at the record of this Doom-dude…

Tony searched through some more logs tagged with Doom, then switched to the newest entry. A video. Tony watched it.

When he was done, his mouth was set in a serious line. _Daaaamn_ , not good at all, then. A quick cross-reference with the database of the Avengers that he had remote access to confirmed that Steve had apparently taken a whole team of people to go and 'defeat' this Iron Man. Given that they must think they have him safe and sound in New York, they could only assume that Doom was up to no good with an empty armour… And fight it accordingly.

Tony sighed and brushed through his hair. Okay, he had to do something. If something happened to this world's Tony, it would be _his fault_. He couldn't take that risk, he had fucked up enough for a lifetime over in his own universe, failing to protect the people he should have protected... Tony shook his head as if to chase away an annoying fly. _Stop the self-pity, Stark, you have other things to do!_

He tried to contact both the FF and the Avengers over their respective networks, but it yielded no results. Damn it, either their communication devices got damaged in the fighting that had in all probability already started, or Doom had somehow induced a dead zone around them. So he couldn't let them know from NYC that they were actually fighting their friend, and prevent worse things from happening.

Off to Latveria then, what a beautiful extended holiday.

Only, about that Whiskey… Tony quickly imputed some other variables and was led to Storm's room, as was obvious from the various posters of rock stars on the walls. He opened a promising cabinet and immediately saw a bottle of the golden fluid. For one moment, he hesitated, thinking about the fact that this world's Tony was apparently sober. Well, that sucked for him, Tony decided, what a boring loser, took a generous sip (or five), closed the helmet and flew off.

xxXXxx

"Carol!" screamed Tony. He could only watch in horror as the suit slowly strangled his friend to death.

"I've always admired her spirit," said Doom with a rather chipper voice, "too bad that she got in _your_ way, Iron Man. One could surmise that her spirit as well as her neck are about to be broken." Tony had always pictured himself to be a kind, even gentle man, but now he experienced such a strong hatred against Doom that he would've killed this fucking psycho, had he only the chance!

"She is quite resilient, isn't she?" continued Doom. Tony gave in to the despair, there was nothing he could do… he would kill his friends, all was his fault – why hadn't he built better defences against the likes of Doom? Before he could muse further on his failings his suit issued a general warning of an incoming attack. Tony saw how Reed, although visibly injured, moved his stretched hand with incredible speed towards him.

"Reed! Stop me!"

Richards grabbed his arms with his elastic arm and hand and as he retracted his limbs Tony realised that his friend had applied small EMP-Bombs onto his armour. Within a fraction of a second a numbing pain shoot through his arms, and the suit partly lost power, enough to release Carol from his grip. She fell on the ground – hopefully still alive. Tony knew of course that it was only a matter of moments before his suit rebooted and shouted ( _does my voice modulator still work?_ ): "Reed! It's me – Tony – shut me down, NOW!" Richards had wrapped himself around the armour and was fiddling on a small device when he looked up in shock.

"TONY? My god… I didn't know… How…"

"Doom is controlling the suit! The security-codes won't work anymore – kill me now before…" But Tony couldn't finish the sentence, the armour had powered up again and simply shook off Reed by sending an electric pulse through his exterior. Reed screamed and slithered away from Tony.

"Oh, I'm going to enjoy this," whispered Doom into Tony's ear, which was almost creepier than his manic laughter before. The armour shot several times with the repulsors, always missing Reed by centimetres – Doom was playing with him.

"Reed! For God's sake, defend yourself!" Tony wanted to scream and holler, but the pain and his exhaustion and desperation made him barely whisper what he wanted to shout. "Take the negative cannon, Reed! Kill me!"

Suddenly Tony felt as if a powerful force literally pulled his feet away from under him, with a heavy sound he fell onto the muddy ground. Only as the suit struggled to get up again Tony realised that Reed had wrapped one of his hands around his legs and tried to hold him down.

"Reed! You cannot hold me! You have to…" Tony said, again he wanted to shout, but all he managed was a hoarse whisper. He knew Reed, despite his encounters with hostile beings he was always hesitant when it came to brute force – but so help him Einstein – brute force was necessary. ( _Reed is too soft… I have to rile him up_ ).

As Richards struggled again with his device and at the same time tried to entangle the suit enough to gain precious time Tony said what he knew would drive his friend over the edge: "Reed, listen to me! Doom will make me kill Sue, and he won't stop there! Do you understand? _Kill me now or I will maim Sue!_ "

Something in Reed's face changed, it wasn't anger or fear as far as Tony could tell. He raised his hand and transmorphed it into a giant spiked Morningstar.

Tony closed his eyes, but the expected hit never came… he opened his eyes again, Reed still held his arm high, tears running down his cheeks. This very moment Tony knew that he couldn't go through with it. It was over.

"Richards is weak as expected – I've given him enough time, wouldn't you think, Stark?" Tony registered how the unibeam charged up.

"Reed! The unibeam – strike now!"

"I can't!"

The unibeam hit Reed right in the chest, no sound left his lips as he slowly fell down, his arms and legs went limp. His face expressed a mixture of pain and, strangely enough, relief.

"Well, that was disappointing, I expected more of a fight," said Doom, sounding indeed somewhat bored. "Ah well, shall we proceed to the murder then? I'm expecting a delegation in about a half an hour, allow me to make quick work of these push-overs."

Tony felt tears streaming down his face as the suit slowly advanced on the fallen figure before him. No… He couldn't… Not Reed too…


	6. Just Peachy

When Tony entered Latveria, he already saw smoke rising from the town square below Castle Doom. Battle in full swing then. He frowned, hoping that he wasn't too late…

Suddenly, the warning systems on his hud went off. Missile approaching. So apparently Doom had a nice welcome program in place for unexpected visitors. Hardly surprising.

Tony simply continued on his course, the missile tracking him getting closer by the second. When it was about to hit him, he did a full stop up in the air and veered off his track by centimetres; the missile narrowly missed him and Tony hit it from behind with a repulsor blast that made short work of it. He grinned. The system was obviously designed for planes or other bigger and slower means of travel. Sometimes, being the pilot of the most advanced and flexible battle suit in the world was simply a joy.

Tony engaged the stealth mode of his suit, effectively blocking most tricks Doom could have cooked up, and a few seconds later, he was already close enough to the square to get a general idea of the goings-on. And what he saw wasn't good.

First, he saw Sue Storm, off to the side, apparently knocked out, smoke rising from the debris around her. The suit had knocked out _Sue Storm_? Damn it, that woman was as tough as they got…

Behind her, he saw into a ruined mansion, where Carol was lying on the ground, still as death. _Oh no, Carol_. From what he knew from her file, she was one of the absolute powerhouses of the Avengers, and the suit had downed her, just like that… Was she unconscious, or worse? _Please, don't let it be worse_. In the short time that he had known this Carol, he had already become very fond of her (granted, he had a weakness for her in his own universe too, and couldn't help but think that if only his Carol were a bit more like her, they might still be together).

Tony activated his med scans (good that other-Tony's tech was so similar to his own in many ways) and checked Sue and Carol for vital signs, noting with a sigh of relief that they were both alive, if badly hurt. They needed to get medical attention as soon as possible. Tony activated the Avengers emergency frequency, even though he didn't exactly have high hopes that he would get any reaction, as Steve would probably have taken all the Avengers available at the time with him. Still, it couldn't do any damage…

Speaking of Steve: Tony saw the man lying in the wreckage to the side, and his heart skipped a beat. No. He couldn't have gotten Steve killed in this universe as well. _Please no_. But a millisecond later he realised that his scanners indicated that Steve was okay (his broken arm was already in the process of healing, all hail the super soldier serum), and sure enough, he saw the man move with clenched teeth, trying to get to his shield that stuck in the debris some metres from his location. _What a tough old dog_ , Tony thought with a wry smile.

All of that dealt with in a matter of seconds, Tony focused on the main part of the fight. And what he saw made him freeze.

He saw Richards, fist raised, morphed into a deadly Morningstar, towering above the Iron Man Suit. He was getting ready to strike other-Tony down. He was really going to do it.

Tony tried to move, but he seemed to be stuck. His own breathing sounded unnaturally loud in his ears. He had to do something. So this Richards had lost it too. _No, Stark, get a grip, this isn't_ your _Richards_ , he told himself, but his body didn't seem to obey his command.

And suddenly, he realised that Richards had tears streaming down his face. He wasn't moving.

He heard other-Tony's voice (really identical to his) coming from the voice modulator:

"Reed! The unibeam – strike now!"

Other-Tony sounded ragged, as if he were in extreme pain and desperation. But Reed grimaced, and yelled: "I can't!"

And then everything happened very fast. The suit discharged its unibeam right into Reed's chest, and he fell backwards. The suit got up, and he heard other-Tony taking wheezing breaths, almost sobs, obviously close to absolutely losing it. Between intakes, he heard him murmur "nononono, please, Doom, nono..."

So this was it. This was the moment when he had to intervene. But Tony still found himself rooted in place. Too much had the scene he had just witnessed reminded him of his own horrible experiences with Reed Richards. _Maybe I should just let other-Tony finish this one. Maybe that would keep him from also losing it, trying to take over the world and killing the people I cared about (Anthony)_.

Suddenly, he heard a clanking noise and realised that Cap, still half-lying in the dirt, had thrown his shield at the suit. The suit turned its glowing eyes on him while aiming a repulsored hand on Reed. And again, he heard other-Tony's voice: "NOOO, please, Doom, please don't kill my friends…"

And that was what was needed to spring Tony into action. No, he would _not_ let that asshole Doom take the people he cared about from other-Tony, the way he himself had lost most people close to him. He could not let that happen, his own issues with Richards notwithstanding.

Tony clenched his teeth and aimed a repulsor at the suit. The suit was thrown backwards by the impact, obviously having been caught completely unaware of another potential antagonist in the square. Tony smiled grimly. Bless his cloaking techniques – the ones other-Tony employed seemed to be just as advanced as his own.

However, the suit quickly got up again – he heard other-Tony groan in pain – and fired directly at him. Okay, that was the disadvantage – it being fitted with the exact same stealth techniques that he was employing, it was of course able to decode them. Tony dodged the blast and fired back. He had to be careful there – the whole point of his mission had been not to kill other-Tony, so he had better refrain from more destructive tactics.

The two suits were caught in some sort of deadly dance, battle protocol fighting battle protocol, when the other suit suddenly put up its shield. Tony was momentarily distracted and searched the environment; he only realised that he had fallen for a ruse when a powerful blast of the chest beam hit him. While the suit was still searing with superfluous energy, Tony suddenly noticed that an attack of another kind was in full swing.

Columns of numbers started flickering across his screen. _Damn it_. With a start Tony realised that what he was fighting against must be the AI of other-Tony's suit, an AI that Doom had taken over, an AI that knew the system of the suit he was wearing better than he himself did, only having used other-Tony's gear for a few days. Tony immediately engaged in counter-measures, putting up firewalls, fixing security leaks while the program was attacking them.

His attention divided, the suit got another hit in (he heard other-Tony try to scream murder at Doom, his voice weak and laced with pain). And slowly, he felt the system of his own suit crash. _No_. If it succumbed to Doom's meddling, Doom would have two Iron Man armours (and two Tony Starks) at his disposal and kill everyone in the square. He _had_ to shut the other suit down to stop the cyber-attack.

Tony turned to the suit, and when he noticed the security core of his AI-system being targeted, he made a decision. He didn't really have a choice.

Tony felt tears in his eyes as he activated a code he had prepared while travelling to Latveria, thinking of the worst that could happen. He himself had always had kill switches in all of his tech, and as he had suspected, other-Tony had one too. Only his kill switch had a downside: As not only his suit was powered by his tech, but his body as well, by the reactor in his chest ( _crazy bastard_ ), the kill switch not only shut down the suit – it would effectively also shut down its wearer.

He approached other-Tony, his shield up against the perpetual fire of repulsor blasts and the code he would use in a matter of seconds. When he was within hearing distance, he opened his helmet, still protected by the shield, and said: "I'm sorry." Then he launched the code.

The suit fell down, felled like a tree. Its eyes went dark, as did the circle of light in its chest. Tony felt wetness on his cheeks.

Before he had time to do anything else, though, he heard a primal scream of rage behind him.

Somehow Tony had expected to see Cap when he turned slowly around, but to his utter horror it was Reed Richards who lunged towards him. His face was distorted in a mask of anger. Even when his Psycho-Richards was slowly killing him while performing a brain surgery on him, he was completely controlled and coherent. The sight of this berserk Richards made him freeze once again, he barely managed to shut his helmet before Reed reached him. The other man wrapped his elastic body around Tony's armour, a current should've taken care of the angered Reed, but Tony was frozen in space.

" _You're not him!_ YOU KILLED TONY! YOU KILLED THE REAL TONY, YOU BASTARD!" screamed Reed on the top of his lungs while he pounded on the man in the iron suit with all his strength. Of course Tony didn't feel the force of the attack since his shock absorbers were active, but the display in his helmet showed him that nonetheless a considerable amount of force was being applied to his armour – Reed was really using every ounce of his power to hurt him. The thought triggered rather unpleasant memories… and Tony forced himself to say…But no words left his mouth. _You have to say something! SOMETHING TO MAKE HIM STOP!_... _Calm down_ , he told himself, _you're safe – your armour_ will _protect you! CALM THE FUCK DOWN!_

But another glance at Reed's distorted face caused him to act out of sheer self-preservation. Tony charged his repulsors and aimed them at Reed, he heard how somebody shouted, but he had to get rid of Richards, he couldn't take it anymore.

But despite his state of mind Richards realised what Tony was about to do and to Tony's terror he heard something he never thought possible: He heard how Reed said something that took away his last barrier: "Armour override code Reed Richards, 456-4090-10275-444".

 _No – NO, that wasn't possible_ … how could Richards know this code?! But despite his desperate counter-commands the armour simply shut down and released all locks.

Richards literally ripped every piece of armour away, and as soon as he had stripped Tony of his suit Reed's fist rose once again, absurdly enlarged. Tony lifted his arm to fend off the undoubtedly lethal strike and squinted.

But instead of hearing his own bones break under the savage attack of a crazy Mr. Fantastic, Tony only heard soft sobs and he felt how warm drops fell on his naked torso. He opened his eyes slowly and was stunned by the sight of a crying Reed, his fist was no longer threatening to crush him. Reed held his head with both his hands.

"Do you know what you did? You've killed him…" Reed sobbed.

Tony could only stare as a strange mixture of guilt and pleasure overcame him. A certain perverse satisfaction took hold of him – if only for a fraction of a second – yes, he had made him pay! After what had happened to him he had felt a rage never felt before. The very sight of his or this Reed Richards had made him wish to _hurt_ them! Let Reed suffer like he suffered!

His sentiments changed within mere moments, though, he of course _knew_ that this Reed wasn't responsible for the crimes of his counterpart… and the initial satisfaction was replaced by an overwhelming sense of guilt about the fate of other-Tony. _I did it again! I've ruined everything, not only in my universe, but also in this!_

"I'm… I'm sorry… Rich… Reed, I had to stop him…" stammered Tony, a sickening headache caused him to scrunch up his forehead. _Christ, I need a drink! Or several bottles!_

The man sitting on top of him calmed visibly down and finally looked at Tony. His face was no longer distorted with anger, but rather with grief.

"I… I know, I just couldn't stand the thought of losing Tony."

Reed seemed so lost and the sight of this cold man falling apart moved Tony in a fashion he never thought possible. He sat up and hugged Reed. To his surprise Reed hugged him back. They stayed that way for a few moments, the sun had begun to set behind the latverian mountains and illuminated the two men in a warm orange light.

"Ah, for fuck's sake, why oh why didn't I stop the transmission a few minutes ago?" cursed Doom. Tony jerked his head up, DOOM? It sounded like he stood right next to them. But a quick look confirmed that the voice came from a lonely Doombot standing about 20 meters away.

Before Tony or Reed could answer or for that matter do anything at all they heard someone coughing and to their surprise they heard other-Tony say in a weak voice: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Tony stared. Reed literally leaped off him (he felt strangely bereft of the man's closeness and warmth, what the hell was going on with him) and ran, or rather stumbled towards where other-Tony lay.

"Tony, oh my God, you are alive!" he heard the man exclaim enthusiastically, bending down.

Tony slowly got up – his legs felt damn shaky, he was going to need a holiday from his holiday – and when he approached the two, he saw that Reed was tentatively stretching out a hand towards other-Tony's cheek. Other-Tony had opened the helmet, but apart from that, he was still fully in the armour and he flinched back a little when Reed touched what looked like a very ugly gash on his cheek.

"Well, barely, to… be quite honest." His voice indeed sounded wrecked and he looked unnaturally pale, probably from the blood loss.

"TONY!" he heard behind him. Cap was approaching, leaning on Carol's shoulder ( _thankfully she seems to have recovered a bit_ ). Carol stared at the Tony on the ground, then at him.

"And I thought this day couldn't get any worse. There's _two_ of you?!"

Tony gave her a lopsided grin. "Well, twice the fun, right?"

Carol just shook her head at him disbelievingly, gaping. Meanwhile, Cap had also bent down by other-Tony's side and had taken his hand.

"Tony, what happened?"

"Well, from that I assume… this handsome devil over there… didn't really tell you… about the interdimensional rift that caused me to end up… in his universe, and him here, correct?" Other-Tony didn't look very pleased, he looked angry in a very… sober and grown-up way that made Tony cringe. Suddenly, though, his face scrunched up in pain and he was shaken by a coughing fit. When he removed his hand from his mouth it was glistening red.

Reed turned around to Carol. "Right. We need to get him to a hospital. _Now_. He obviously has internal injuries."

Carol nodded. "Reed, get him to the Quinjet, without jostling him, if you are able to. I am going to collect the others, and then we're out of here."

"Not so fast."

They all turned around at the sound of Doom's voice. The Doombot was standing behind them, eyes alight.

Carol rolled her eyes. "What _now_?"

"Well, Miss Danvers, or should I say… _Captain_ Danvers" – he basically spit out her title, voice full of disdain – "you don't honestly think that I would just let this business rest? Two Tony Starks? Twice the Starktech? Oh yes, I can see a very bright future ahead."

"Victor." Reed had gotten up and approached the bot. "Please, be reasonable. Tony is dying, we need to get him medical attention immediately."

"Well, Reed, I don't know why I should care, but you have always had a weakness for the preservation of life, even life as worthless as Stark's. However, I might be gracious and let you get him the medical attention he so _urgently_ needs." His tone was mocking. "However, I do seem to see that you have a certain abundance of Tony Starks on you. How about you leave me the other one? The _impostor_?"

Everyone turned towards Tony, who raised his hands in defence. "Hey, I know I lied to you and kind of killed you" – he pointed at other-Tony – "−why are you alive anyways?−, but let's not overreact, everyone makes mistakes!"

He heard something like a pained little laugh coming from other-Tony, who muttered under his breath: "Oh yeah? Good thing you were apparently too… _drunk_ to use the codes that would effectively shut down my RT… instead of the old set of… Extremis-codes for the... armor."

Tony frowned. "So you aren't updating your database all the time? I mean, the entry clearly said…"

"Guys" Carol interjected, "not the issue."

Other-Tony, who had opened his mouth to retort, closed it again. And was promptly shaken by another coughing fit. Cap crouched down beside him, holding his shoulders.

"Well, as I assume you won't cooperate…" The Doombot had raised his arm.

And then it fizzed. The lights in its eyes flickered and went out. With a loud clank, it landed on the floor.

Everyone stared as Janet, looking a little the worse for wear, suddenly appeared before them, enlarging herself after having evidently messed something up in the circuitry of the bot. She smiled grimly.

"I don't know what's going on here, and I'm not sure I want to know" – she made a sweeping motion with her arm that included the two Tonys – "but I never liked Doombots much."

Tony beamed. "Jan, Darling, I could hug you!"

She looked at him with a vaguely disgusted face. "Not when you're dirty and sweaty like that. Also, I have no idea if I even know you. But I reckon we had better settle that matter someplace not swarming with Doombots. Let's go!"

Reed took a knee beside Tony and carefully lifted him. Tony winced a little.

"I'm sorry, Tony, I will do my utmost to let no other harm come to you," said Reed, his arms tightly wrapped around his friend.

"It's alright, Reed, I'm just happy that I'm back home… you wouldn't believe where I have been."

"Really? How fascinating! I'm assuming that you were in several alternative universes – may I…"

"Reed?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up and hold me."

Tony walked closely by Reed and other-Tony and felt a twinge of jealousy as he watched how close Richards and his alternate self were. He gritted his teeth and thought how he felt back then – before his Richards had tortured and killed him ( _bastard!_ ) – there were these brief, almost happy moments when he worked with the Fantastic Four. His Reed Richards was considerably younger and still… he had enjoyed talking to a peer who actually understood what he was talking about. A man who was as driven as Tony himself, damn it, they even both had fathers who made them miserable! Tony sat down in the rear end of the jet.

 _Oh man, I need a drink…_ he thought once again as the Quinjet took off. _If I'm wallowing in self-pity I need at least a bottle of Laphroaig Islay Single Malt._

"Are you alright?" Tony's musings were interrupted and as he looked up he to his surprise saw Steve standing in front of him. Captain America had his arms crossed and although he had asked the question in a pleasant voice his whole posture screamed that he wanted to rip Tony's head off.

"You keep asking the same question, sweetheart. My answer stays the same: I'm just peachy." Tony didn't want to talk to Steve right now, all he wanted was some peace and quiet until they would send him back – back to a universe where almost all his friends were dead or had tried to kill him.

"Don't give me that attitude, Tony – or whatever your name is!"

"Or what? Are you going to beat me up, toots?"

Before they could continue their discussion Carol appeared out of nowhere and slapped them both on the backs of their heads. "We will talk about everything that has led to this, gentlemen, but I'm really tired of all this cockfighting, so keep it down!" Steve looked rather agitated but he silently went to his seat and sat down, Tony continued to brood and looked out of the window.


	7. Checkmate

"Mr. Stark is going to be fine," declared the weary looking surgeon. Carol rushed towards the skinny doctor with the almost ridiculously large glasses and shook his hand. "Thank you very much, Doctor Winkler!" The other Avengers gathered around them and started immediately asking how long Tony had to stay in the hospital.

"He will have to stay for at least three weeks, Mr. Stark is still sedated – but you can visit him in a few hours…" Doctor Winkler blinked several times when he saw alternate Tony standing a little further away, next to the Fantastic Four. Carol reacted quickly:

"Uh, don't mind him – he's…"

"Don't bother," replied the surgeon, "since my time here I've seen my share of strange Avengers-business."

Carol just nodded and headed to alternate Tony. "You're lucky, Tony. He's going to be alright." Before Tony could respond Johnny Storm cut in.

"You still owe me an apology for being such a dick – I almost died of a brain trauma or something because you knocked me out!" said a revolted Human Torch. " _And_ you drank my booze!"

"I'm sorry, Johnny, I promise you – should you ever come to my universe I'll introduce you to our hottest gals, deal?"

"Tony! Do you really…" started Sue before her brother again interrupted.

"DEAL!"

Sue started to lecture her brother about the probability that he would ever visit alternate Tony's universe. Instead of listening Johnny inquired if Ororo Munroe was single in the other universe. Carol snorted and turned her attention towards Reed. She wasn't surprised to see him fiddle with some gadget.

"Reed, are you ok? What are you doing?"

Reed looked up, startled. He had probably forgotten all about the fact that he was in a hospital, surrounded by people, the moment that he had turned towards his beloved science. Carol sighed inwardly, but immediately chastised herself: after all, Reed had more than proven that he cared about Tony and was a useful asset in a fight.

"Yes, Carol, everything is fine." He scrunched up his face again and kept on fiddling.

"What is that you are building, if I may ask?", Carol asked.

Reed looked up again and there was something strange in his eyes. "I am recalibrating a diagnostic interdimensional holotransmissive porto-projector."

"Which means?" Carol asked patiently.

"It means he is reprogramming a device we use for assessing the dimensional origin of any given person or object", Sue said with a smile. She had approached them from behind without Carol noticing. Behind her, Johnny and alternate Tony were still chatting (bickering?), while Jan was on the phone a little distance away, beaming and apparently letting someone know that Tony was going to be fine.

"So that means you want to prevent something like this from ever happening again?" Carol asked, frowning.

Reed gave a half-shrug. "Carol, he" – he pointed towards alternate Tony – "almost got Tony killed. I cannot let that happen again." There was a strange fire in his eyes.

"Did I hear someone mention my name?" Alternate Tony turned around, facing them, an easy smile on his face. But Carol knew her Tony well enough to recognise the tension in the shoulders and the hidden sadness in the eyes of this strange impostor.

They all looked at one another uncomfortably, then Sue said "Yes, Tony 2. Reed is figuring out a way to prevent something like this from ever happening again."

The smile slid off Tony's face. "Oh. Yes, of course."

Reed made a sudden motion, putting the device into his pocket, and looking up at other-Tony. He looked… really angry again, Carol noted with surprise.

"Why? Why did you do this?"

Other-Tony cringed and looked to the floor. He didn't say anything.

Suddenly, Cap came up behind them. "Yes, I really want to know as well. What on _earth_ made you think it would be a good idea to pretend to be our Tony?!"

"Look, Cap, old boy, I don't really feel like talking about it right now, alright?"

Cap positively growled and, for once united, he and Reed moved in on alternate Tony. "Not good enough, 'old boy'. We want answers."

Tony's eyes flitted back and forth between the two men. "Later, okay?"

Reed suddenly extended his arm and put his hand on other-Tony's shoulder. Other-Tony cringed a little and looked down. "Tony, you have a responsibility to face here. Your actions almost got our Tony killed. We need to know what has happened, precisely."

Tony flinched. "Well, my actions, that's all good and well, but you shouldn't forget that there was a teensy involvement of a nice chap called Doom."

Behind him, Johnny snickered. He was apparently enjoying the display of drama. Cap looked a lot less amused, and when he spoke, there was a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Declining responsibility, my God. Thankfully our Tony left this state of drunken irresponsibility behind him long ago."

Tony gave him a wry smile. "You really are just as self-righteous as my Cap. Not that it helped him much… in the end."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I might have my reasons for drinking, Cap."

Reed interjected. "Listen, Tony, you should seek help, there's great organisations like AA, I am sure you have something similar where you are from…"

Tony laughed bitterly. "Oh, thanks so much, I never would have thought of that."

"Yes, I mean, our Tony also had a great struggle with alcohol, but in the end, he made it and…"

Tony laughed again, interrupting Reed. "Well, glad to hear what a brilliant chap my alternate self is. I'm very much looking forward to talking to him." And without another word, he turned on his heel, shaking Reed's hand off, and disappeared down the corridor.

When he was out of sight, Tony collapsed against the wall. _Shit shit shit_. He really had to keep it together. But the mixture of well-justified anger and self-righteous judging he was facing in those people was hard to deal with. His feelings of guilt gnawing at him, he quickly buried his head in his hands, then took a few deep breaths and decided to try and find other-Tony. Maybe looking at himself in a drug-induced, deep, dreamless sleep was going to help him calm down.

Other-Tony was alone in a hospital room. Theoretically, he shouldn't get visitors yet, but Tony didn't really care. When he entered the room, having flirted with the nurse until she gave him access (at least his 'charm' apparently still worked), and saw the still figure on the bed, he felt a sense of dread. _Oh God. I did that._ _I almost killed another Tony who might still have a decent shot at happiness…_

He sat down on the bed, looking at the still face of his alternate self. Other-Tony looked relaxed, more relaxed that he could recall himself being, but that was probably also just the effect of the anaesthesia. From what he had seen in the network of other-Tony, that guy must have _tons_ of issues as well. Then again, apparently, he was tough enough to deal with them without succumbing to addiction. _Unlike me_.

Tony just sat by the side of his alternate self, trying not to think much, unaware of the time passing, occasionally cradling other-Tony's hand in his. No reaction, other-Tony's eyes stayed closed, dark lashes a stark contrast against his pale skin.

Suddenly, Tony heard the sound of the door opening. He wasn't surprised to see Carol standing in the door.

"I thought that you would be here," she said as she pulled off her mask. Tony remained silent. Carol walked to a chair across the room and sat down slowly.

"Did they vote on who should interrogate me?" asked Tony in an untypically weary manner.

"Actually, I think they're still bickering about it."

Tony laughed. "I guess so – I guess Cap wants to give me the 3rd degree, right?"

"Let's just say that he wants to be the bad cop," responded Carol while smiling.

"Great, that means that Richards will be the good cop – lucky me!" said Tony with a rather bitter undertone in his voice.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Hm, I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Nope," Carol looked at her mask in her hand. "But perhaps it helps."

"Well, dear, only one way to find out. I hope you aren't expecting some clever scheme on my part – I just wanted to…" Tony rubbed his temple. _Why haven't I a built-in booze-supply in my armour?_ "I wanted to for a few days stay in a world that hasn't gone to hell. Everything started out so promising, new heroes, Gods even, emerging from every corner of the world. Our future was so bright… but I guess that's what Icarus thought back then: 'Wow, so shiny!' right before he fell from the sky. Some engineer I turned out to be! When the world needed a big brain to think a way out of this Galactus-disaster… I couldn't deliver! All my prattling about how smart I am and yet I wasn't able to save my friends! I was so weak that I couldn't stop Cap from sacrificing himself for NOTHING!" Tony rose from the bedside and started to pace back and forth. "We were barely able to save our world and it took Richards, this murderous bastard, to get it done!"

Carol got up and approached Tony. "I see, that's why you couldn't stand our Reed – let me guess, your Reed Richards thought that he would better the world and somewhere on the way turned into a raving maniac?"

"Something like that, they say that the path to hell is paved with good intentions, but Richards… he committed genocide and took something very precious from me…" Tony felt how a lump formed in his throat when he thought of Anthony. "But do you want to hear the strangest part of it all? Despite all his heinous crimes I sometimes feel like I have abandoned him. Perhaps if I… he was my colleague, my friend even, and sometimes I think he wouldn't have gone down that road if I had been there for him."

"I don't know if I should slap you or hug you, Tony," stated Carol. "You're a smart guy, I guess you know that not everything is your fault or your responsibility."

"Of course, my sweetie, I know, but it doesn't change the regret I'm feeling. And if you ask me – a hug would be fine." Tony gave her his trademark lopsided grin and sincerely hoped that Carol wouldn't slap him again.

Captain Marvel stepped forward and embraced Tony. He inhaled her scent, strangely enough it reminded him of his Carol. Maybe that was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Suddenly he heard how other-Tony stirred. Carol let go of him and went straight to the semi-unconscious man lying in the bed.

"Tony?"

Tony went closer to the bed and heard how other-Tony mumbled: "Need…"

Carol bent over him, her ear next to his mouth. "What?"

"Need… Need Reed…." whispered other-Tony barely audible.

Tony gritted his teeth and rushed out of the room. He found the Avengers and the Fantastic Four right where he had left them. Steve wanted to say something as soon as he saw Tony approaching, but Tony simply waved him off and headed straight to Reed who was still fiddling with his gadget. Sue saw how flustered Tony was and nudged Reed. He looked up, apparently completely surprised to see that he wasn't in his lab. Tony stopped right in front of Richards and spat: "He asks for you!"

Reed didn't even bother to ask who he was talking about, instead he rushed off. Ben Grimm eyed Tony and said: "Ye know, you don't look too happy, T."

 _Pull yourself together!_ "What are you talking about, sweetie?" But before the Thing could answer Tony left and returned to the hospital room. When he entered he heard how his counterpart said: "Would you look at that, Reed, I'm not even dead and you already cloned my handsome self! But hey, I can totally understand that…"

Reed stretched himself to the monitors and read the readouts: "You are confused, Tony… don't you remember…"

"Reed, I think Tony made a joke," commented Carol, barely able to hold back her laughter.

Reed looked even more confused than before. "Right, a joke."

Other-Tony tried to sit up, grimacing. "Ouch, you know, this mattress really isn't very soft."

Carol rolled her eyes a little, but she had a fond smile on her face. "Yeah, I bet that's the problem…"

Tony looked from the man in bed to Richards, bending around him, gripping a medical flashlight and shining it into his eyes (he still felt the need to interfere and drag Richards away from this helpless Tony, but he had his reflexes under control, now), to Carol, standing on the other side of the bed, holding other-Tony's hand and looking at him with fond eyes. Not for the first time, he felt a twinge of jealousy. Not only was this Tony sober and in control of his life, he was surrounded by people that apparently really… _cared_. He thought back to how snappy his Carol had often been with him, and the contrast hurt.

"Reed…"

"Yes, Tony, hold still, I want to check your reflexes…"

" _Reed_ , my reflexes are perfectly fine, could you _please_ stop _fussing_ …"

"Tony, you have been through something, I need to make sure that…"

"REED, I'll show you how fine my reflexes are by _kicking you in the head_ if you don't stop pestering me…"

"Boys, behave" Carol interjected with a chuckle.

Other-Tony sighed. "Reed, my RT is dying, I need a new core installed. That's why I called you, not because I want you fussing over me like I'm one of your kids."

Reed stopped trying to hit a little hammer on other-Tony's knee (his alternate self was artfully dodging all his attempts, leading to Richards repeatedly hitting the duvet). He grimaced.

"Tony, you know I'm no surgeon, I don't want to take that responsibility again… Also, why do you need a replacement, anyways?"

Tony kind of knew what was coming, but before he had a chance to disappear out the door without attracting attention, other-Tony pointed at him. Tony stopped in his tracks. "Because that guy used my old deactivation codes, and while I have shielding against them, the strain of the electromagnetic pulse still managed to irreparably damage the core of the RT unit. If I don't get a replacement soon, I am, surprise, surprise, dying, I bet you never saw that coming."

Everyone looked at him darkly. "Um… sorry?" Tony tried.

Carol and Reed were still glowering, but other-Tony nodded curtly.

"Ok, Reed, you up for it? Tick tock, I am dying, remember."

Reed opened his mouth to answer, but before he could get a word out, Tony blurted: "I don't think you should do it."

Other-Tony shot him an incredulous look. "What?"

"I mean", he hastened to explain, "this whole RT business is nuts. From what I've seen in your database, your whole biology is run by this energy source. Why not have nanites rebuild the nervous system so that it works autonomously again?"

Other-Tony looked interested. "Ah, nanites? You mean like the ones you injected yourself with to give you direct control over your suit?"

Tony smiled. "I see I am not the only one who did some research while in another world. Yes, exactly. I could program them to suit your unique biology."

Reed looked alarmed. He turned to his friend in bed. "Tony, you can't take that risk. We don't even know that guy, for all that he might look like you. We don't know if we can trust him, after all, he did nothing but lie to us…"

"Hey, unfair, I totally didn't lie when I told you I really needed a whiskey!"

What was meant as a joke to lighten the mood apparently gave other-Tony pause. He looked at him appraisingly. Then he sighed. "Maybe you're right, Reed. You have the access codes to my lab, you'll find a new RT…"

"Wait a moment", Tony interrupted. "What was that? Come on, I am _you_. Who would you trust if not yourself?"

There was something cold in other-Tony's eyes. "Actually, I would trust myself least of all, especially a version of me who drinks."

Tony just gaped at the man in bed for a few seconds. Then he turned around to leave. Only to in the door walk into the broad frame of Captain America. He quickly squeezed past into the corridor.

"Steve, really, I am okay", Tony said for what felt like the hundredth time, but he couldn't stop the warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach at how much Steve seemed to care.

"Fine, Tony? Didn't you just tell me a minute ago you were _dying_ because that idiot deactivated your RT?"

"Well, deactivate is a strong word, considering I am still talking to you, right now, but he damaged it, yes."

Steve looked at him darkly. "We have to hold him responsible for his actions."

Tony sighed. When he had seen the wounded look in the eyes of his other self, he had immediately felt bad for his comment about his alcoholism. But by the time he had opened his mouth to keep Antonio from leaving, Steve had already entered, blocking his view, practically jumping at him to start fussing (really, Reed and Steve were _the worst_ ).

"Look, Steve, he had to somehow deactivate my technology, or Doom would have hacked his armour as well, and you know, killing me is preferable to two Tonys killing all of you, right? It's simple math."

Cap looked as if he were about to object, but he didn't get a word out, because Reed suddenly exclaimed: "Fascinating!"

"What?" Carol and Tony asked in unison.

Reed looked up, seemingly confused. "Oh, nothing, it's just this spectrometer that is..."

"Yeah, okay, Reed, thanks for the input. Tony, what did you find out about this Antonio while in his universe?" Steve interrupted. Apparently Steve and Reed didn't really get along, Tony thought fleetingly. _Wonder why?_ He would have to ponder that question another time.

Tony lay back on his pillow. "Well, for one, did you know that we live in utopia? Because compared to his world, we certainly do…"

"What do you mean?" Carol asked, frowning.

"Does 'all his friends are dead or tried to kill him' about cover it? Also, Reed, I think I have to keep a close eye on you from now on. Your alternate self… _Yuck_ , world dominion doesn't suit you, I am telling you."

Reed looked up from the monitors, startled. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you apparently tortured and killed Antonio out of jealousy, or something, I didn't get all of it, and then he brought himself back using the infinity gems."

" _WHAT?_ " exclaimed Reed, Steve and Carol all at the same time. Tony decided not to elaborate. If anything, it was his other self's choice to inform them of what had happened, and so far, Antonio had obviously decided not to do so.

"The infinity gems, fascinating…" murmured Reed. Carol looked stricken, and Steve had grabbed Tony's hand so tightly it almost hurt.

"Steve, I am fine, really" Tony said, smiling. "I am back here, everything is just peachy. But…"

"What but? You should rest, Tony…" Cap said.

"Yes, I know, I probably should. But I think I have to talk to my alternate self. I hope he isn't doing anything stupid" Tony said, with a sigh.

"Stupid? Come on, never, he's you, after all, he can't be prone to stupid actions, can he" Carol said with a wry smile.

xxXXxx

Antonio stood on the roof of the Baxter Building, he stared into the sky quietly humming _Sympathy For The Devil_ to himself. From time to time he took a sip of whiskey from a bottle he held in his left hand. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

Antonio had decided to enjoy his stay as long as possible before he had to go back to his own universe. The very thought of Steve, Carol and even Reed fussing over his alternate self a few levels further down made him bitter, he lifted the bottle of oblivion so that he could read the label and murmured to himself: "To drink or not to drink, _that_ is the question…"

"That quote is not entirely accurate…" said a male voice from behind him. Antonio clenched his teeth the moment he recognised who the speaker was. He turned around slowly and faced Richards who was approaching him, but shortly before he reached him Reed stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes as he registered the booze Antonio was holding in his hand.

"Has anyone told you that you're an insufferable know-it-all, toots?" Antonio remarked coldly before taking another gulp.

"Occasionally," replied Reed equally cold, he put his hands in his white lab coat, then he cleared his throat and continued: "I just wanted you to know that he is going to be alright – the operation went smoothly."

"I… I'm sorry that all this happened," whispered Antonio, suddenly wishing that somebody else but Reed Richards was there on the roof with him. Tears started to well up in his eyes, he let go of the whiskey, the bottle shattered in thousand pieces but Antonio didn't care, he sank to his knees and buried his face in his hands, but he was beyond caring. "It's some kind of curse, it has to be… Everybody I meet… these things happen all the time and I'm responsible!"

Reed stretched his arm and stroked Antonio's head gently. But the hateful glare that Antonio shot at him made Reed retract his hand, not even a socially inept man like him missed the anger that almost distorted Antonio's face in a grimace.

"Don't you dare to console me, Richards!" The fury vanished from his face as fast as it had come. "I… I don't deserve it and it makes me desperate… to know that there is a world like this… and I'm stuck in mine…"

"You don't have to go back, there is no data that supports the thesis that…" began Reed visibly uneasy, but Antonio interrupted him by simply lifting a hand.

"You don't get it… Reed… I'm not stuck in my dimension, I'm stuck in my own personal hell. Even if I stay here I won't become whole again, just seeing you and all the others… it feels like… like I have to literally throw up my own heart." Antonio touched his throat. "I can feel it, my heart is right here… I can't shallow anymore, it's clogging up my respiratory system."

Reed opened his mouth but no sound came out, he closed it again and simply stared at Antiono. "I… I don't know what to say…"

"But I do," said other-Tony, his voice startling Tony out of his misery. He looked weak and panted as he limped with crutches towards Antonio.

"Tony! You shouldn't be out of bed!" exclaimed Reed and stretched his arms to support his friend.

"Yeah, yeah, I know and it's a miracle that I slipped past Nurse Steve – you two are worse than Pepper by the way. But as they say… 'know thyself' and so on. Tony here needs to hear certain things before he goes back to his universe."

Antonio looked up, tears still streaming from his eyes. "Are you gonna tell me that it's in my own hand to find bliss in life? That I should pull myself together?"

"No, I'm not Howard Stark, or Gregory Stark for that matter, I just came to tell you that it will get better. Come what may, Tony Stark is too damn stubborn to give in. We fall, yes, but we always get up again – always."

Antonio snuffled and wiped his face with the back of his hand. Then he rose to his feet and leaned against the handrail, turning his back towards Reed and Tony. "Of course we do, sugar, it's our curse that we can't stop – for better or worse."

In this very moment Steve busted through the roof-top door and yelled: "I gave you an order, Stark! Stay in bed!"

Tony rolled his eyes, but smiled nevertheless as Steve literally dragged him back to the hospital room. Reed looked back and forth between Antonio and Tony, insecurity visibly written all over his face. Antonio watched Reed from the corner of his eyes and simply waved him good-bye. As if he had waited for that signal Reed followed Tony and Steve quickly, leaving Antonio alone.

It took Antonio, Tony and Reed only an hour to recalibrate the portal to Antonio's universe. Carol and Steve stood in the back of the lab, their arms crossed as Reed activated the wormhole inducer.

"Well, take care, and remember, we always get up again" said Tony and hugged his counterpart.

Antonio was surprised. His eyes widened in shock as he could literally see on Reed's face how he thought about copying the gesture, but before he could protest Reed had already wrapped his arms around Antonio.

"Uh, good-bye," stammered Reed.

Carol flew towards him and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. "You are a dork, but I still like you, Tony, or Antonio, or whatever – and that counts for both of you!" she quickly added and smiled at Tony.

"See you, soldier," said Steve without drawing nearer.

It actually hurt Antonio to see how distant Steve acted towards him (then again, it's not like his Steve had been much nicer towards him, generally), but he still felt Carol's lips on his cheek and smiled one last time at the people surrounding him before stepping through the portal.

In a blink of an eye he was standing in the Baxter Building in his universe, and for the first time he registered how similar Reed's and his Richards' lab were. Since Richards was still imprisoned due to his heinous acts against the Asgardians this lab was powered down. It looked desolate and the realisation that he was now alone again sunk into Antonio's mind. But then something occurred to him, and he was almost surprised at himself.

He made a decision and strode out of the lab with long, determined steps. He went straight to the launch pad and flew to the S.H.I.E.L.D.-prison. Antonio passed all security checks and made his way to a prisoner who was held in isolation, several heavy doors had to open before he stood in front of a reddish cube – multiple force fields were in place to stop the inmate from escaping.

Antonio hesitated shortly before he opened his visor, then he cleared his throat to get the prisoner's attention. The slender young man looked up from the book he was reading, a rather large scar ran across his left eye, giving him the look of a hardened veteran.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Tony," said Reed Richards in a low voice.

Antonio exhaled and took a chair, he sat down right in front of Richards and asked: "Are you up for a game of chess?"


End file.
